Unattractive Bad Drivers
Baby you can drive my car – or motorcycle!
Don't worry about dating websites, using Lynx and rehearsing that cheeky grin in the mirror – no need for any of that – instead, to make yourself more attractive, just take an advanced riders course! Yes really!
The Institute of Advanced Motoring (IAM) revealed the results of their new scientific study into driving in August, and the results are quite entertaining. Apparently, bad driving and riding reduces attractiveness by 50%
In fact, as many as 4 in 5 women and nearly half of men are physically turned off by bad driving.
You might think you look like this...
In order to study this phenomenon the IAM teamed up with a behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings for an in-depth analysis..
or this...
How on earth?
You might be forgiven for wondering how on earth you can test the attractiveness of drivers or riders – well here's what they came up with:
Candidates were shown videos of both good and bad driving while they were hooked up to equipment which read their pulse rate, pupil dilation, blink rate and body language. All these factors, when quantified and analysed, revealed how attracted each individual was to the drivers they were watching.
The results revealed that women, in particular, found bad driving significantly off-putting – in fact, 84% of candidates reported more negative feelings when watching bad drivers. Bad driver's attractiveness ratings plummeted from 4.8 to 2.8 to the watching women when they exhibited - for example - road rage.
Finger on the pulse
The pulse rate of 60% of female candidates increased whilst watching bad driving manoeuvres, with a 20% increase for a third, indicating that watching bad driving gave them increased stress levels.
or this.
So next time you are gripped by road rage, feel tempted to overtake illegally or tailgate another driver or rider just bear in mind that you won't be upping your attractiveness rating with any women on board!
The male reaction was not so extreme, with only a quarter (28%) reacting unfavourably and reporting a dislike for the driver's bad behaviour.
Body language indicators showed that for men, instead of stress, frustration was the overwhelming response. Candidates were found to frown, become agitated and shift position as they watched videos of parking, turns or other examples of distracted or preoccupied behaviours.
Leave the stunts to the professionals
Top five unattractive driving behaviours
- Road rage
- Illegal overtaking
- Bad parking
- Texting whilst driving
- 3 point turns
- Taking selfies at the wheel
- Driving the wrong way round a roundabout
Wheelie Bad
Road rage was the worst first-date faux pas for almost half (46%) of Brits, whilst a similar number say texting at the wheel leaves them wanting to end a date then and there.
A further one in 10 (11%) are irritated by someone who takes 15 minutes to park, whilst an eighth of Brits (13%) find overly cautious drivers who go under the speed limit off-putting.
Jo Hemmings continued:
“Overall the experiment supports the hypothesis that bad driving elicits strong instinctive responses, with a correlated effect on levels of desire. However, it's evident that women have a stronger negative reaction to bad driving than men, and find bad drivers considerably less attractive as a result.”
Cornering goes wrong
IAM - Lookin' good!
So all in all there is quite a good, research-backed incentive to get even better on your motorcycle and on the road than you already undoubtedly are!
What do you think about this story – does it ring true to you or do you prefer to wheelie your way to romance? Email us your thoughts at
[email protected]
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