According to William Szlemko, in his recent study published at the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, the more a driver has bumper stickers, window decals, personalized licensed plates and other territorial markers on his vehicle, the greater is his tendency to get mad when someone cuts into his lane.
The road anger may be expressed through his car in the form of honking, tailgating and other known aggressive motorist conduct.
Szlemko and his fellow academics at Fort Collins found a link between aggressive driver behavior and visible markers on cars. "The more marker a car has, the more aggressively the person tends to drive when provoked," Szlemko wrote.
He explained the driver behavior to the concept of territoriality in which the motorist equates public roads as "my street" or "my lanes"
This behavior applies even to drivers whose cars may have peace-bearing messages like "Visualize World Peace" or a threatening marker such as "Don't Mess With Texas" and "My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student".
