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
BTW, I have only one bumpersticker: "the King is coming, and boy is he pissed".
Oh and the "jesus" stickers and "proud parent" stickers seem like a great way to make friends. Who wouldn't want to socialize with an elitist a-hole?
Made me laugh, but I also yielded big time. Could be a rager.
Oh, and do avoid those drivers with the Jesus Fish decals. Those folks are so busy waiting for the Rapture, that they're not paying attention on the road.
Althoug truckers stop at gas station to take a picture of it and childeren in the neighberhood refer to it as the sex bus, it has nothing to do with it, people just asume. i like it :)
(btw, i live in the Netherlands, so the surfing products are not well known.)
So its not at all surprising that people with sarcastic political bumper stickers are prone to road rage/territory issues. Its like walking up to a stranger on the street and saying "hey, guess what I think about so and so". Look buddy, I don't give an f what you think. If you want to get off to a good start, to persuade me to your cause, start with a civil introduction.
Neutral public spaces, what a concept!
Jesus save me from going to prison.
-Demetri Martin
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.