Social representations associated with men and women drivers among French adolescents and adults. Effects of the perceiver’s age, sex, and socioeconomic status

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the specific contents of the social representations (SR) associated with men and women drivers and to examine the effects of the social insertions of individuals (i.e., age, sex and socioeconomic status) on the content and the structure of these SR. A preliminary study with 414 French participants identified thematic content associated with men and women drivers through the method of verbal associations. Based on these themes, 833 French participants, equally distributed on the basis of age group (from 12 to 50 years-old and over), sex and socioeconomic status (SES), were asked to answer a questionnaire on men (N = 422) or women (N = 411) drivers. The results show that these SR are each organized around three factors: incompetence, prudence and lack of selfcontrol for women drivers; carelessness, skills and self-control for men drivers. In-group 2 favoritism bias can be noted as male participants, more than female ones, rated men drivers as having self-control and women drivers as lacking self-control, whereas female participants, more than male ones, perceived men drivers as careless and women drivers as prudent. Despite this phenomenon, in all age groups, male respondents, more than female ones, seem to believe that women are not competent for driving, whereas both sexes seem to agree on men good driving skills. Among most age groups, three characteristics associated with man drivers (confidence, fastness and pleasure of driving) and four characteristics associated with female drivers (caution, civility, compliance with rules and vigilance) emerge as central in the SR. The SR associated with men drivers seem to be stable and shared across age groups, whereas the SR associated with women drivers appear more mixed, heterogeneous and unstable with age. Participants with higher SES consider female drivers as more incompetent, more nervous and less cautious than participants with lower SES and female's responses tend be closer to those provided by the male group when they are higher SES.

The role of individualism, gender and situational factors on probabilities of committing offences in a French drivers sample

“…Extended versions of the TBP have also highlighted the role of injunctive, descriptive, personal and moral norms in predicting such behaviours (e.g., Cestac, Paran, & Delhomme, 2011, 2014Cooke, Dahdah, Norman, & French, 2016;Elliott, Armitage, & Baughan, 2003;. Also, research on the psychosocial determinants of aberrant driving behaviours have investigated the influence of sex roles, gender stereotypes (Degraeve, Granié, Pravossoudovitch, & Lo Monaco, 2015;Granié, 2009;Özkan & Lajunen, 2005;Pravossoudovitch, Martha, Cury, & Granié, 2015;Sullman, Paxion, & Stephens, 2017) and that of such personality traits as aggressive behaviours (Lajunen, Parker, & Stradling, 1998), sensation seeking (Iversen & Rundmo, 2004;Ulleberg & Rundmo, 2003), empathy and conformity (Nordfjaern & Şimşekoğlu, 2014). More recently, Nordfjaern and colleagues have questioned the role of cultural factors in determining risky behaviours for both pedestrians (Nordfjaern & Şimşekoğlu, 2013;Nordfjaern & Zavareh, 2016) and drivers (Nordfjaern & Şimşekoğlu, 2014) in Middle East .…”

Sex and Age Differences in the Endorsement of Sex Stereotypes Associated with Driving

“…Indeed, we undertake a web-based survey, but only 63% of households have internet access at home in France (Deroin, 2010), mainly among the middle and upper socioprofessional categories, whereas socioeconomic status could influence perception of male and female drivers (Degraeve, Granié, Lo Monaco, & Pravossoudovitch, 2015). Future research should confirm these results on a larger and more representative sample of the French population.…”

Conformity to gender stereotypes, motives for riding and aberrant behaviors of French motorcycle riders

“…The driving perceptual-motor skills are stereotypically associated with males and this activity is considered as consistent with the masculine social role (Chateignier, Chekroun, Nugier, & Dutrévis, 2011;Degraeve et al, 2015;Félonneau & Becker, 2011;Granié & Pappafava, 2011;Pravossoudovitch, 2016;Sümer, Özkan, & Lajunen, 2006). The road safety skills are stereotypically associated with females (Degraeve et al, 2015;Granié & Pappafava, 2011;Pravossoudovitch, 2016;Sümer et al, 2006). Furthermore, these stereotypes affect the individuals' behaviors.…”

“…Studies showed that high masculinity, which is strong conformity to masculine social stereotypes, is linked to higher risk-taking in many activities, such as playing sport (Cazenave, Le Scanff, & Woodman, 2003) or car driving (Guého, Granié, & Abric, 2012a;Schmid Mast, Sieverding, Esslen, Graber, & Jäncke, 2008). Furthermore, driving is an activity which skills are associated to males (Berger, 1986;Degraeve, Granié, Pravossoudovitch, & Lo Monaco, 2015;Granié & Pappafava, 2011;Pravossoudovitch et al, 2015). The driving perceptual-motor skills are stereotypically associated with males and this activity is considered as consistent with the masculine social role (Chateignier, Chekroun, Nugier, & Dutrévis, 2011;Degraeve et al, 2015;Félonneau & Becker, 2011;Granié & Pappafava, 2011;Pravossoudovitch, 2016;Sümer, Özkan, & Lajunen, 2006).…”

“…Furthermore, driving is an activity which skills are associated to males (Berger, 1986;Degraeve, Granié, Pravossoudovitch, & Lo Monaco, 2015;Granié & Pappafava, 2011;Pravossoudovitch et al, 2015). The driving perceptual-motor skills are stereotypically associated with males and this activity is considered as consistent with the masculine social role (Chateignier, Chekroun, Nugier, & Dutrévis, 2011;Degraeve et al, 2015;Félonneau & Becker, 2011;Granié & Pappafava, 2011;Pravossoudovitch, 2016;Sümer, Özkan, & Lajunen, 2006). The road safety skills are stereotypically associated with females (Degraeve et al, 2015;Granié & Pappafava, 2011;Pravossoudovitch, 2016;Sümer et al, 2006).…”