“I drive well, the problem is the other driver”: A study about the self-assessment of the ability to drive

Abstract

This study aims to verify the self-evaluation that people make about their ability to drive and investigate whether there is a difference between self-evaluation and evaluation about their friends’ abilities. To this end, 151 people answered three different questionnaires, one questionnaire about driving abilities (self-evaluation and evaluation of friends), the Driver’s Behavior Questionnaire and a socio-demographic questionnaire The sample consisted of 50.3% of males with a mean age of 25.32 years (SD = 1.66). As a result, self-evaluation was positively correlated with age, evaluation of friend, weekly driving hours, Common Violations, and Aggressive Violations. In addition, there was significant difference between evaluation by sex: males carry out self-assessments in a more positive way. It was also found that people evaluate themselves better than they evaluate their friends. From this research, it is possible to think the target audience that would most benefit from an intervention to reduce self-evaluation, that is, men, people over 24 years old, and people who have more driving experience.