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Can DUI Checkpoints Change Perceptions of the Police?
New Year’s Eve is near, and police will be especially vigilant about pulling over drivers they suspect of being drunk. While traffic stops pop up more frequently around holidays, they actually represent the most common interaction that people have with police and highway patrol officers on any given day of the year. The US Department of Justice reports that in 2011, 86% of people’s most recent contact with the police was during a traffic stop. And a disproportionate number of those pulled over and searched were black, contributing to the public perception of racial bias within law enforcement.
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Risky Business: Teens Brains Behind the Wheel
Teen drivers are notorious for their bad decisions behind the wheel. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, the risk of car crashes is higher among 16-19-year-olds than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to be in a fatal crash. You might think that a more developmentally mature brain would guarantee more sensible decision-making in teen drivers, but a new study suggests just the opposite.
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Why the Drive Home Really Does Feel Shorter
An unexpectedly long drive in one direction can create an illusion that the drive home is shorter, even when the time spent travelling is exactly the same.
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How Stereotypes Can Threaten Your Driving
In 1995, Stanford University psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson completed a series of groundbreaking experiments showing that evoking negative stereotypes about a group can actually undermine the performance of people in that group — a phenomenon known as stereotype threat. Steele and Aronson’s research demonstrated that even subtle reminders of negative stereotypes about race and intelligence could derail students’ performance on standardized tests. Similarly, new research published in Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that negative stereotypes about older drivers may hinder their performance behind the wheel.
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Even Hands-Free Devices are Dangerously Distracting
Using a hands-free to device to update Facebook or make a call while driving may not seem so dangerous. After all, your eyes are on the road and your hands are on the wheel. But a pair of new studies conducted by APS Fellow David Strayer for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that these voice-recognition systems do little to eliminate distracted driving. The research shows that drivers can remain unwittingly distracted for up to 27 seconds after they disconnect from a call—even when they’re using the car’s own voice-command system. This means a driver driver traveling at a paltry 25 mph will cover the length of three football fields before their attention is fully restored.
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Safe Crossings: The Power of Eye Contact
It can be a dangerous world for pedestrians. Studies on French roads report that nearly 60% of drivers do not stop at all for pedestrians crossing the street at designated crosswalks. New research suggests that pedestrians may have a better shot at crossing safely if they make direct eye contact with oncoming drivers. Decades of research have shown that eye contact has a powerful effect in social interactions. People are far more likely to comply with requests — for example, donating money — when the person making the request looks them in the eye.
