Scientists from the National Research University School of Economics (HSE) have learned how the gender of the driver affects his/her behavior on the highway and traffic accident statistics. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine “The Sociology of Power”.
According to the report’s authors, there is a persistent stereotype that women are worse drivers than men. They are thought to be more susceptible to stress, less responsive to unexpected situations and less aware of the terrain. It turns out that women are more likely to cause traffic accidents.
To test the hypothesis, scientists analyzed nearly 160,000 court decisions on traffic violations from 2010 to 2022. It turned out that in more than 90 percent of cases, the defendants were men.
The researchers normalized and calculated the crash rate by taking into account the difference in the proportion of drivers across genders (68% and 22% female, respectively). After correcting for the gender imbalance, men were 3.25 times more likely to be involved in criminal traffic accidents.
According to scientists, such statistics point to different attitudes of men and women towards driving. Men tend to drive faster and more aggressively. They travel an average of 26% more kilometers per day than women, but spend only 10% more time behind the wheel.
Men are also twice as likely to drink and drive. Male drivers were charged with drink driving in 25% of criminal cases. Among women convicted of traffic violations, the same figure was 10%.
The majority of traffic accidents resulting in death or serious injury to victims are men (75%). In two-thirds of these cases, they are sentenced to prison for their crimes.
Experts from the National Research University Higher School of Economics noted that in Primorye, Moscow and St. Petersburg the difference in the number of traffic accidents caused by men and women is less than the national average. But in regions such as Dagestan or Chukotka the difference can reach 10-20 times.
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Source: Gazeta
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