Examining the role of stress, other emotions in driving

When a Jeep cut me off and then slowed to several notches below the speed limit, I first gasped and then gestured wildly, swearing. These things I remember.

But a sensor I was wearing to capture my heart rate and electrical changes in my skin, along with a vehicle “black box,” revealed more: aggressive braking and accelerating and a rapidly beating heart. It didn’t help that it was in the middle of the workday, when I am almost always stressed.

“This one was clear that when you were a little more flustered, the driving was definitely bad,” said Turuna Seecharan, an assistant professor in the engineering department of the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

I should find ways to calm myself before driving to news conferences and interviews, Seecharan said, so that stress doesn’t influence my choices on the road.

She and graduate student Md Sakibul Hasan Nahid are researching the role emotions like stress play in driving. Is there a correlation?

I wore a sensor for several days to better understand the research. My data showed I was less stressed when I wasn’t in the middle of a workday, even if something unexpected happened on the roadway.

The study could be useful for driver training programs, or lead to technology that warns drivers of stress levels before they get behind the wheel, Seecharan and Nahid said, because stress, fatigue and anger can all cloud decision-making while driving.

“Just like you shouldn’t get into a car if you’re too tired or you shouldn’t get into a car if you’re drunk, it’s the same thing,” Seecharan said. “Pay attention to your emotional state.”

The researchers have recorded more than 100 driving sessions for 25 drivers ages 18 to 30 so far. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says drivers 20 and younger are involved in more fatal crashes than any other group. In 2020, motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of unintentional death for drivers 24 and younger, according to the administration.

The data collection method the university researchers used is similar to what car insurance companies use to determine how safely someone drives, but it also factors in emotional state by starting with baseline physiological data. Braking and accelerating behavior is gauged, and drivers submit mood data before, during and after each driving trip.

The researchers found that electrodermal activity (changes in skin from sweating) can be helpful in predicting emotional states and aggressive driving. The more you sweat, the higher the electrodermal activity.

More physiological measures would improve research, Nahid said, with mathematical models so far showing 60 percent to 70 percent accuracy in predicting how emotional arousal affects a driving score.

Ultimately, driving schools could educate young drivers on how stress and other strong emotions can affect their driving, he said, and teach them techniques to calm themselves “so they have a clear head before driving.”