Sammendrag
Increasing support for the relationship between road traffic violations and accident liability led to research focusing on the determinants of risky driving. In psychology, more recently, a new approach, which is integrating traditional personality trait approach and social cognition approach, has been applied to understand the mechanisms underlying people’s risk-taking behavior in traffic. Following such approach, this study was aimed at measuring personality traits, specific attitudes toward traffic safety, and self-reported risk-taking in traffic and at investigating relationship among them. The study was based on a self-completion questionnaire web-survey carried out among 186 students at University of Oslo. The participants completed measures of attitude (consisted of attitude toward fun-riding, speeding, and traffic flow vs. rule obedience), personality (included normlessness, impulsive sensation seeking, and aggression-hostility), and driving behavior questionnaire (consisted of Highway Code violation, aggressive violation, and error). The results of a structural equation modeling suggested that the relation between the personality traits and risky driving behavior was mediated through attitudes specific to traffic safety. Together with attitudes toward traffic safety, gender and exposure were found to be good predictors of risky driving behavior. Methodological limitations and implications of the study were also discussed.