Young driver news - New driver car insurance and vehicle ‘faces’ research

New driver car insurance and the vehicle ‘face'

Recent research conducted by Sonja Windhager, an anthropologist at the University of Vienna, has found that the style of vehicle a motorist buys may reveal their personality and influence driving habits.

However, this is probably not as true of the cars that new driver car insurance holders buy, since young drivers are often highly restricted by the cost of driving and might not be able to afford the car they want most.

Reportedly, people attach human personality traits to vehicles by looking at the size and shape of the radiator grilles, headlights and windscreens.

Miss Windhager explains, "Our findings unearthed the striking similarities between car and face perception. The similarities of car and face perception might influence driving, pedestrian behaviour and the design of car fronts themselves.

"I think it might influence our decisions on which cars we buy when other factors such as price, space and engine power are close to being equal. We may even pay more for a car with a face we like better, but that remains to be investigated."

The study involved 129 adults from Austria and Ethiopia. Rating 26 images of real vehicles, the participants found the cars to have a range of different personalities and saw them as expressing varying emotions. These included dominant, masculine, feminine, childish, mature, sad, angry, happy, and neurotic.

Sonja Windhager states, "We would like to see whether the driving behaviour of other drivers is affected by the shape of a car. Do we change the lane sooner when we see an aggressive looking car in the rear-view mirror?"

If further research shows that inconsiderate or dangerous driving is partially linked to the design of a vehicle, then, perhaps, in the future only cars with calm and friendly ‘faces' will be manufactured in a bid to reduce the number of experienced and new driver car insurance holders involved in road accidents.