Road Rage Linked to Bumper Stickers

Psychologists William Szlemko and his colleagues at Colorado State University in Fort Collins have made a link between road rage and ... bumper stickers!

People who had a larger number of personalized items on or in their car were 16% more likely to engage in road rage, the researchers report in the journal Applied Social Psychology.

“The number of territory markers predicted road rage better than vehicle value, condition or any of the things that we normally associate with aggressive driving,” say Szlemko. What's more, only the number of bumper stickers, and not their content, predicted road rage — so "Jesus saves" may be just as worrying to fellow drivers as "Don't mess with Texas".

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080613/full/news.2008.889.html (Photo: altopower [Flickr]) - via Blue's News


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I'm an artist, so I make my own stickers. I have four that I change regularly whenever I get tired of them, and many people have actually pulled up and complimented me on my work. My current faves are one which says "Robbed Again '08 (referring to the "elections" in this country, no matter who "wins", we all lose), and an intricate knotwork Pentacle made from five dragons of varying colors (red blue black green and white).

I have seen far worse driving from those with pro-bush and christian stickers than anyone else, period. I live in AZ, though,so it may just be the high ratio of idiots to sane people out here. It's almost a guarantee that any truck or SUV is going to drive like an entitled jerk , stickers or not.
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I'm actually a big fan of bumper stickers. a) it gives me something to look at when I'm in traffic, and b) it's interesting to see the diversity of people around, especially as compared to the cars themselves (i.e. sometimes you'll see particular stickers on makes of cars you wouldn't expect to see them on). I try not to get too political with mine (click my name for a picture), mostly because I don't want anyone getting ragey on me and/or keying my car when it's parked. But I do wonder sometimes if other people get the fannish ones I have. I see a lot more of the Apple sticker than I used to, which is cool.
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A lot of people don't like bumper stickers. I don't mind bumper stickers. To me a bumper sticker is a shortcut. It's like a little sign that says 'Hey, let's never hang out.'
-Demetri Martin
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