Monday, February 1, 2010

What is Road Rage?

Who are these Road Ragers that are increasingly plaguing our roads?

They can be any one of us because everyone is susceptible to stress and anger. All of us experience moments when we vent our anger through verbal snarls,obscene gestures, honking the car or cutting off drivers. However, people with aggressive tendencies are likely to be road ragers more often than others.

More recently, researchers have found that those prone to road rage may show one or more of the following characteristics: aggression, high stress levels, anti-social tendencies,low impulse control and frustration tolerance.

Most of us have experienced the anger of a virulent driver. And most of us usually would attribute that to a form of personality disorder, like Intermittent Explosive Disorder or IED.

A new study, published in the Journal BMC Physiology, suggests, however, that anger in drivers is not caused by personality or character defect, but by something more insidious in our environment - toxic exhaust fumes.

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