Accident Analysis and Prevention 171 (2022) 106664

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Accident Analysis and Prevention

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The effect of anger on pedestrian avoidance in a simulated driving task

Qian Zhang a, b, c, Weina Qu a, b, Yan Ge a, b, *
a
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China
b
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
c
School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Studies of the influence of emotions on driving behaviour have produced contradictory conclusions. This
Anger confusion is related to two factors: emotional arousal and driving tasks. The purpose of this study is to explore the
Pedestrian-crossing event effects of anger and happiness on the driving behaviour of drivers who encounter a pedestrian-crossing event on
Risky behaviour
an unmarked road, which requires strategic and behavioural choices. Thirty-nine drivers completed a simulated
Simulated driving
driving task to avoid pedestrians under the influence of state emotion. The results showed that anger increased
the average driving speed, the minimum speed when encountering a pedestrian, the probability of passing in
front of a pedestrian, and the lateral distance to the pedestrian from the right. However, there was no difference
between the impacts of happy and neutral moods on driving behaviour. These results suggest that general risky
driving behaviour (e.g., speeding) is mainly affected by anger state. Meanwhile avoidance behaviour patterns in
pedestrian-crossing tasks, as a driving behaviour related to prosocial attitudes, are also affected by emotional
valence. Recommendations and implications for further research on driving anger are discussed.

1. Introduction
Emotion is an important factor in the processes of thinking and
performing an action, and driving performance is no exception (Nass
et al., 2005). Whether emotion positively or negatively influences
driving behaviour is unknown. Some studies have suggested that emo­
tions have protective effects, such as decreasing driving speed or
reducing traffic violations, by increasing perceived risk and decreasing
the willingness to engage in reckless driving (Barnard and Chapman,
2016; Lu et al., 2013; Schmidt-Daffy, 2013; Taubman-Ben-Ari, 2012).
However, other studies have shown negative effects of emotions. For
example, anger is typically thought to be a negative emotion that evokes
approach motivation (Adams et al., 2006; Harmon-Jones, 2003) and
leads to aggressive driving behaviour (Bogdan et al., 2016). The
different findings may be due to various attributes of the emotion, such
as arousal and categorization.
1.1. Why focus on anger and happiness?
Excessive arousal is an emotional characteristic that negatively af­
fects driving performance and the willingness to engage in reckless
driving (Easterbrook, 1959; Taubman-Ben-Ari, 2012; Yerkes, 2004). On
the one hand, a high arousal state decreases individuals’ response ca­
pacity. For example, drivers’ brake reaction times are marginally slower
when a lead-vehicle event occurs 500 ms after an individual is shown
high-arousal images (Trick et al., 2012). Furthermore, drivers’ reaction
times in detecting peripheral visual targets increase with higher levels of
anxiety (Janelle et al., 1999). On the other hand, potential hazards are
perceived better during neutral states than during emotional arousal
(Jones et al., 2014). Anger and happiness, both categorized as high-
arousal emotions, have been assumed to have a similar effect on
driving performance. However, little empirical evidence has shed light
on whether these two emotions influence driving performance in the
same way.
Anger has been recognized as a contributor to dangerous driving
behaviour; it is a direct factor in motor vehicles’ involvement in colli­
sions and the severity of consequences (Deffenbacher et al., 2003;
Mesken et al., 2007; Roidl et al., 2013; Underwood et al., 1999). Re­
searchers have presented the effect of anger on driving behaviour from
various perspectives and using various measures. Some studies using
self-report methods have measured the habits of drivers in angry states
(Dahlen and White, 2006; Deffenbacher et al., 2003; Deffenbacher et al.,
2000; Deffenbacher et al., 2001; Sullman and Stephens, 2013; Sullman,
2006; Sullman et al., 2007). Other studies have focused on drivers’

* Corresponding author at: 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China.
E-mail address: gey@psych.ac.cn (Y. Ge).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2022.106664
Received 27 September 2021; Received in revised form 3 February 2022; Accepted 1 April 2022
Available online 9 April 2022
0001-4575/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Q. Zhang et al.
performance using driving simulators (Stephens and Groeger, 2011;
Stephens et al., 2013) or during actual driving (Mesken et al., 2007).
Anger has been found to lead to higher speeds, greater acceleration, and
poorer lateral position vehicle control (Mesken et al., 2007; Roidl et al.,
2014; Techer et al., 2017). Moreover, anger affects drivers’ overall
driving performance and outcomes during specific events, such as
resulting in harder braking during lane merging events, shorter waiting
time during left-turn events, closer following distance during car-
following events and more traffic violations (running red lights,
crossing lines) (Abdu et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2016).
Whether happiness impairs driving performance remains unclear.
Some studies have shown that happy arousal can lead to more driving
errors (e.g., worse lane keeping and more aggressive driving and traffic
violations) (Jeon et al., 2014b) and higher speeds (Rhodes et al., 2015).
A reduction in the perceived risk of general accidents resulting from
humorous emotions has also been found (Hu et al., 2013; Lu et al.,
2013). However, evidence that happiness and neutral conditions do not
differ in their effects on driving performance is even more noteworthy.
Drivers who listen to happy music or notice pleasant words and images
show more distraction but a decrease in speed (Chan and Singhal, 2013;
Pêcher et al., 2009) and better lane keeping (Hancock et al., 2012),
which is considered a beneficial compensation behaviour. Furthermore,
many researchers agree that pleasure has a positive effect on human
attention and cognition (Carver, 2003; Fredrickson, 2004; Isen, 2001). A
traffic study showed that inducing a happy mood with music did not
increase response times or fixation durations beyond those associated
with a sad mood in hazard perception tasks (Zimasa et al., 2017). The
above review suggests that the impact of happiness on driving behaviour
and the impact of anger are not consistent across studies.
The difference in the impact of happiness and anger on driving
behaviour may be caused by valence. This view has been supported by
the research of Trick et al. (2012), in which image valence had an effect
on steering performance: drivers showed improvement after viewing
positive images but worse performance after viewing negative images.
Another study focusing on emotional valence and risk perception in the
transportation field also found that negative affect showed opposite and
stronger effects on drivers’ risk perception than positive affect (Hu et al.,
2013). Specifically, negative emotion significantly elevated drivers’ risk
perception compared with drivers who experienced positive emotion
and those in a control condition (Hu et al., 2013). In contrast, other
studies have shown a consistent effect of positive and negative emotions
on driving performance. These studies found that emotional images,
whether positive or negative, reduced sensitivity to potential hazards, as
indicated by lower subjective ratings of risk, smaller physiological re­
sponses and shorter fixation durations when viewing a hazard after
viewing positive or negative images than after viewing neutral images
(Jones et al., 2014).
1.2. Why focus on pedestrian avoidance situations?
The lack of consistent results has been thought to be related to two
factors: emotional arousal and driving tasks. On the one hand, Eheren­
freund-Hager et al. (2017) found that arousing positive affect and
negative affect led to increased risky driving and that relaxing positive
affect moderated risk-taking. In addition, the effects of emotion on
driving were found to be highly task-specific and dependent on the
attentional demands of multiple tasks while driving (Steinhauser et al.,
2018). In a simulator study with two different driving tasks, brake re­
actions were unaffected by positive and negative emotions in a modified
continuous tracking and reaction task but selectively influenced by
anger in a modified version of the three vehicle platooning task (Stein­
hauser et al., 2018). It was explained that the distance to the lead car was
flexible and personalized only in the three vehicle platooning task, and
anger shortened the distance to the lead car; thus, more salient brake
lights in this condition decreased the braking reaction time (Steinhauser
et al., 2018).
2
Accident Analysis and Prevention 171 (2022) 106664
Taking into account the impact of task differences on emotional ef­
fects, it is worth summarizing and considering the driving tasks and
indicators in previous studies. First, self-reported driving history (e.g.,
accidents and violations) and the frequency of various types of driving
behaviour (e.g., aggressive driving behaviour, risky driving behaviour,
drunk driving, errors) are widely used as dependent variables in survey
studies (Dula and Ballard, 2003; Harris et al., 2014; Nesbit et al., 2007;
Parker et al., 1995; Qu et al., 2014). Second, longitudinal and lateral
vehicle control, such as speed, acceleration, lateral deviation and reac­
tion time, are often recorded in driving simulator studies and considered
to be related to attention and basic cognitive ability (Mesken et al.,
2007; Roidl et al., 2014; Steinhauser et al., 2018; Techer et al., 2017;
Ünal et al., 2013). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, strategies and
patterns in specific driving events have received increasing attention.
For example, the relationship between emotions and the number of
traffic violation types (e.g., yellow or red light crossings, collisions with
weaving cars, pedestrians hit) has been explored in simulator studies via
objective measures (Abdu et al., 2012; Jeon et al., 2014b). Zhang et al.
(2016) focused on the pattern of driving performance during lane
merging events, including later and harder braking and narrower and
more heuristic processing-style eye movement under angry conditions.
Moreover, individual preference (Zhang et al., 2019) and response ca­
pacity (Zhang et al., 2020) have been studied in car-following driving
tasks. However, pedestrian-crossing events, which are among the most
common accident scenarios, have received insufficient attention.
Pedestrian crossing scenarios lead to traffic accidents for drivers who
show little willingness to give way to pedestrians (Bella and Silvestri,
2015; Várhelyi, 1998) and even greater aggression when pedestrians
cross at an unmarked crosswalk (Katz et al., 1975; Ragland and Mitman,
2007). More importantly, aggressive priming has been found to increase
the failure to yield the right of way and to drive closer to pedestrians
than no priming (Chai and Zhao, 2016). Recent studies have focused on
the crossing strategies of pedestrians (Yang et al., 2006; Zhao and Wu,
2012; Zhou et al., 2009; Zhuang and Wu, 2011); however, the subtle
changes in driving patterns under different emotional states with respect
to pedestrian crossings need to be further studied.
Given that the number of pedestrian deaths in 2016 was more than
16,000 in China, accounting for 25% of the national road traffic fatal­
ities, more attention to driving patterns when approaching pedestrian
crossings is needed. This study has two main purposes. First, this
simulator study primarily focuses on the effects of anger and happiness
on driving patterns in a pedestrian-crossing task. Second, by comparing
the effects of anger and happiness on driving performance, the effect of
valence on driving performance can be further revealed. In summary,
the hypotheses of this study are as follows:
a. Compared to neutral conditions, anger not only leads to risky driving
behaviour (e.g., speeding) but also encourages drivers to be more
impulsive in avoidance patterns (e.g., the minimum speed when
encountering a pedestrian, the probability of passing in front of a
pedestrian, and the lateral distance to the pedestrian).
b. Compared to neutral conditions, happiness leads to risky driving
behaviour (e.g., speeding) but does not encourage drivers to be more
impulsive in avoidance patterns.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
Thirty-nine male drivers with more than three years of driving
experience were recruited through an online advertisement at a driving
service company in Beijing. Their ages ranged from 27 years to 43 years
(M = 32.54; SD = 3.59), with an average driving experience of 10.15
years (SD = 3.93). They drove an average of 30,835 km/year (SD =
19,162) and had a total mileage of 337,179 km (SD = 310,373). See
Table 1 for more details.
Q. Zhang et al. Accident Analysis and Prevention 171 (2022) 106664

Table 1
Participant demographics (n = 39).
N Percent (%)

Age
20–30 years 14 35.9
31–40 years 24 61.5
41–56 years 1 2.6
Driving years
≤ 5 years 2 5.1
6–10 years 21 53.8
> 10 years 16 41.0
Annual mileage
≤ 20000 km 16 41.0
20001–40000 km 13 33.3
40001–60000 km 8 20.5
> 60001 km 2 5.1

Fig. 1. Simulated traffic scenario and events of target pedestrians from the left
2.2. Emotion induction and check
and right sides of the road.

For the present study, three emotion priming videos were chosen
subjective emotional scale. Next, the participants were asked to drive
from the Standardized Database of Chinese Emotional Film Clips (Ge
according to their daily driving habits in a simulator with pedestrian
et al., 2018). The participants in the anger condition watched a segment
crossings. They were also informed of the speed limit and asked to arrive
from the movie “City of Life and Death” that lasted 73 s. The clip that
at the destination as soon as possible. After driving, they again rated
was used to induce happiness was a segment from the movie “Better and
their emotions using the same scale. At the end of each session, the
Better” that lasted approximately 85 s. The neutral video was a 41-sec­
participants took a one-minute break. Following completion of all three
ond clip from a popular science documentary called “Space Millen­
sessions, they were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire that
nium”. More descriptions of the reasons for and details of the use of
included age, driving experience, annual mileage and three-year colli­
video clips to induce emotions have been presented in a published
sion history. This process lasted approximately 45 min, and the partic­
article (Q. Zhang et al., 2019). The participants’ emotions were checked
ipants were rewarded with RMB 200 yuan (approximately $29.08 US)
using a self-report method with a self-assessment manikin (SAM)
for participation. The study was approved by the Institutional Review
(Bradley and Lang, 1994). The participants were asked to rate their
Board of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
anger, happiness, arousal and valence levels on a 9-point scale from 1
(not at all) to 9 (very much) (Abdu et al., 2012).
3. Results
2.3. Apparatus and scenarios
3.1. Manipulation check
The driving task was completed using a STISIM® driving simulator
The t test was used to compare the emotion scores in the various
(STISIM DRIVE M100K). The driving scenario was presented on a 27-
conditions after priming and after driving. For the anger condition, the
inch LCD with 1920 × 1200-pixel resolution. The driving simulator
anger score was significantly higher than in the neutral condition after
also included a Logitech Momo® steering wheel with force feedback, a
priming (t = -9.16, p < 0.001), and the effect was maintained until the
gas pedal, and a brake pedal.
drivers finished driving (t = -3.65, p = 0.001). For the happiness con­
There was a practice phase before the formal experiment to ensure
dition, the happiness score was significantly higher than in the neutral
that the participants had no questions about the driving simulator. The
condition after priming (t = -7.82, p < 0.001), but this effect was not
driving scenarios included free driving without incident, following a car
maintained until the drivers finished driving (t = -7.82, p = 0.164).
and events similar to the formal experiment. This phase lasted 20 min.
One-way ANOVA was used to compare emotional valence and
The scenario in the formal experiment involved a one-way lane with
arousal in the three conditions after priming and after driving. The main
a speed limit of 20 mph and right-hand traffic. The driver’s seat was on
effect of emotion on valence was significant after emotion priming
the left side of the vehicle. Twenty-four pedestrians separately appeared
(F(2,76) = 88.25**, η2 = 0.699) and after driving (F(2,76) = 9.32**, η2 =
2 ft from the roadway edge line, with 12 on the left and 12 on the right.
0.197). The post hoc analysis confirmed that the valence in the anger
Eight pedestrians crossed the road (target stimulus), and the other 16
condition was significantly lower than in the neutral and happiness
pedestrians did not move (nontarget stimulus). For target pedestrians on
conditions after priming and after driving (all ps < 0.010). The valence
the left side, when the vehicle was within 200 ft of them, the pedestrian
in the happiness condition was significantly higher in the neutral and
began to cross the road from the left side to the right side at a constant
anger condition (ps < 0.010); however, after driving, the valence in the
speed of 2 mph. For target pedestrians on the right side, when the
happiness condition was significantly higher than in the anger condition
vehicle was within 120 ft of them, the pedestrian began to cross the road
(p = 0.004) but not significantly higher than the neutral condition (p =
at a constant speed of 2 mph (see Fig. 1).
1.000).
For the arousal scores, the main effect of emotion was also significant
2.4. Procedure
after priming (F(2,76) = 35.87**, η2 = 0.486) as well as after driving
(F(2,76) = 7.56**, η2 = 0.166). The post hoc analysis confirmed that after
After signing the informed consent form, the participants began a
priming, arousal in the anger and happiness conditions was significantly
two-stage practice session to familiarize themselves with the driving
higher than in the neutral condition after priming. Moreover, arousal
simulator and task for 20 min. Then, they began the formal experiment
scores in the anger condition were significantly higher than those in the
in three sessions. The first session involved driving under a neutral
happy condition (all ps < 0.010). After driving, arousal scores were
emotion condition, while the order of the other two aroused-emotion
significantly higher in the angry condition than in the neutral condition
sessions involved driving under happiness and anger conditions and
(p = 0.005), while arousal in the happy condition was not significantly
was counterbalanced. Each session included two phases. First, the par­
different from the other two conditions (pneutral-happiness = 0.183, panger-
ticipants watched a film clip and then evaluated their emotions on a

3
Q. Zhang et al.
= 0.076).
happiness
These results indicate that emotional arousal was effective. The
emotion of anger was maintained throughout the driving task, while the
emotion of happiness showed a marked decline. The means and standard
deviations of the emotion scores are shown in Table 2.
3.2. Effect of emotion on average speed
To determine the effect of emotion on average driving speed, the
main effect of affective state (neutral, happiness, anger) was calculated
with ANOVA and was found to be significant (F(2,76) = 7.39, η2 = 0.156,
p = 0.002). A Bonferroni post hoc corrected analysis was then con­
ducted. The participants in the anger condition (M = 18.40, SD = 1.61)
exhibited significantly higher speed than those in the neutral (M =
17.94, SD = 1.27) (p = 0.022) and happiness (M = 17.82, SD = 1.43) (p
= 0.007) conditions, while the speed difference between the neutral and
happiness conditions was not significant (p = 1.00) (see Fig. 2).
3.3. Effect of emotion on pedestrian avoidance behaviour
3.3.1. Avoidance patterns
Three different driving patterns of avoiding collisions with pedes­
trians were observed: passing in front of pedestrians, passing behind
pedestrians and stopping to wait for pedestrians to pass (see Fig. 3). The
descriptive statistics of the three avoidance patterns in the neutral,
happiness and anger conditions are shown in Table 3. To determine the
effect of emotion on the percentage of the passing in front pattern, the
main effect of affective state (neutral, happiness, anger) was calculated
with ANOVA and was found to be significant (F(2,76) = 16.14, η2 =
0.298, p < 0.001). The Bonferroni post hoc corrected analysis indicated
that the percentage of passing in front of the target pedestrians in the
anger condition (M = 0.43, SD = 0.37) was significantly higher than in
the neutral (M = 0.26, SD = 0.30) (p = 0.000) and happiness conditions
(M = 0.21, SD = 0.30) (p = 0.001), while there was no significant dif­
ference between the happiness and neutral conditions (p = 0.581) (see
Fig. 4).
3.3.2. Minimum driving speed
The minimum driving speed reflected the minimum longitudinal
velocity (in mph) of the vehicle when it was within 200 ft of a left target
pedestrian or 120 ft of a right target pedestrian (Chai and Zhao, 2016).
To determine the effect of emotion on minimum driving speed, a 3
(affective state: neutral, happiness, anger) × 2 (pedestrian position: left
and right) repeated-measures ANOVA was calculated. The main effect of
affective state was significant (F(2,76) = 12.11, η2 = 0.242, p = 0.00003),
and a Bonferroni post hoc corrected analysis was conducted. The par­
ticipants significantly increased their minimum driving speed in the
anger condition (M = 9.49) compared with the neutral (M = 7.01) (p =
0.0004) and happiness (M = 7.52) (p = 0.002) conditions, while the
difference between the neutral and happiness conditions was not sig­
nificant (p = 0.866). The main effect of pedestrian position was signif­
icant (F(1,38) = 11.50, η2 = 0.232, p = 0.002), and the minimum driving
speed was significantly higher when pedestrians were encountered on
the left side (M = 9.18) than when they were encountered on the right
side (M = 6.82) (p = 0.002). The interaction effect was not significant
(F(2,76) = 2.78, η2 = 0.068, p = 0.068). The results are shown in Fig. 5.
Table 2
Means (SD) of self-reported scores of emotion scales in the anger, happiness and neutral conditions.
Anger condition
After induction After driving
Anger scores 5.49 (3.06) 2.18 (1.88)
Happiness scores 1.21(0.73) 1.82 (1.60)
Arousal scores 5.00 (2.73) 2.92 (2.06)
Valence scores 2.36 (1.68) 3.87 (1.72)
Accident Analysis and Prevention 171 (2022) 106664
Fig. 2. Average speed in the angry, happy and neutral conditions. Error bars
indicate the 95% confidence intervals.
3.3.3. Lateral distance from a simulated pedestrian
The lateral distance from a simulated pedestrian indicated the lateral
lane position of the driver with respect to the simulated pedestrian when
the value of the longitudinal distance was zero and positive to the right
(in ft).
A 3 (affective state: neutral, happiness, anger) × 2 (pedestrian po­
sition: left and right) repeated-measures ANOVA was calculated. The
main effects of affective state (F(2,76) = 1.20, η2 = 0.031, p = 0.308) and
pedestrian position (F(1,38) = 0.21, η2 = 0.006, p = 0.649) were not
significant. However, the interaction effect was significant (F(2,76) =
4.34, η2 = 0.102, p = 0.016), and a simple effect analysis with Bonferroni
correction was conducted. The drivers’ lateral distances from left-target
pedestrians were not significantly different among the three affective
state conditions (all ps > 0.100). The lateral distance from a right-target
pedestrian in the anger condition (M = 13.97) was significantly less than
that in the neutral condition (M = 15.23) (p = 0.005), while the distance
in the happiness condition (M = 14.68) was not significantly different
from the other two conditions (p happiness vs anger = 0.263, p happiness vs
neutral = 0.475). The results are shown in Fig. 6.
4. Discussion
Researchers commonly explore the rules and mechanisms of the in­
fluence of emotion on driving based on the perspective of emotional
properties, mainly valence and arousal. Previous studies have drawn
inconsistent conclusions. The sources of these differences may be that
driving tasks involve different cognitive processes and that there are
subtle differences between discrete emotion categories. Hence, this
study explored the effects of anger and happiness on the driving be­
haviours of drivers when they encountered a pedestrian-crossing event
on an unmarked road, which involved strategy and behaviour choices.
The results showed that anger made drivers adopt risky avoidance
strategies more often than neutral and happy states did, as indicated by a
higher percentage of drivers passing in front of pedestrians, a larger
Happiness condition Neutral condition
After induction After driving After induction After driving
1.00 (0.00) 1.44 (1.31) 1.00(0.00) 1.15(0.49)
4.38 (2.27) 2.51(1.86) 1.74(1.82) 2.15(2.03)
3.18 (1.96) 2.41(1.93) 1.51(1.07) 1.97(1.53)
6.10 (1.25) 4.79 (0.89) 5.05(0.76) 4.87(1.15)
4
Q. Zhang et al. Accident Analysis and Prevention 171 (2022) 106664

Fig. 3. Vehicle track for 120 feet before and after the position of target pedestrians. The top shows left-side events, and the bottom shows right-side events.

Table 3
Descriptive statistics of three avoidance patterns in the neutral, happiness and anger conditions.
Neutral condition Happiness condition Anger condition

Left Right Left Right Left Right

Pass front 59 (37.8%) 22 (14.1%) 41 (26.3%) 25 (16.0%) 94(60.3%) 39(25%)

Pass behind 73 (46.8%) 68 (43.6%) 61 (39.1%) 48 (30.8%) 11(7.1%) 30(19.2%)
Stop 24 (15.4%) 66 (42.3%) 54 (34.6%) 83 (19.2%) 51(32.7%) 87(55.8%)

average passing speed and closer distance to pedestrians. last.

The method of inducing anger and happiness by watching film
fragments is feasible under the current conditions, as indicated by sig­
nificant changes in self-reported emotion scores, but the effect of
maintaining emotions needs to be improved. Previous studies have
shown that emotions affect driving behaviour directly as well as indi­
rectly by affecting visual attention (Steinhauser et al., 2018). For
example, emotional sounds, pictures and words can lead to more dis­
tractions, thus affecting driving performance (Chan and Singhal, 2013;
Di Stasi et al., 2010; Pêcher et al., 2009; Walker and Trick, 2019).
Therefore, if driving tasks are accompanied by emotional stimuli,
drivers’ performance will be affected by both emotion and distraction.
This study attempted to avoid confusion caused by emotion and to avoid
distraction by inducing emotions in the participants before they
completed driving tasks. This approach works better in conditions of
anger than in conditions of happiness. The results show that drivers
became angrier across the happiness and neutral conditions. This could
be due to compounding frustration about the task, which may have
diluted the state of the happy condition, especially when this was done
Consistent with expectations, anger increases drivers’ average speed,
their minimum speed when encountering a pedestrian, the probability
that they will pass in front of pedestrians, and the lateral distance to a
pedestrian from the right. On the one hand, anger increased the average
driving speed, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies.
Driving simulator studies show that anger promotes risky driving
behaviour, which is frequently reflected by increased driving speed
(Abdu et al., 2012; Jeon et al., 2014a; Mesken et al., 2007; Rhodes et al.,
2015). On the other hand, the minimum speed when encountering a
pedestrian under the angry condition was greater than that under the
neutral condition. There are two possible explanations. One explanation
is that the data in this study show a higher proportion of passing in front
of pedestrians rather than stopping to give way to pedestrians under the
anger condition, which involves more driving acceleration to maintain
priority. The other possible reason is that drivers’ brake response was
impaired in the anger condition. The effect of anger on delaying emer­
gency responses has been supported by another study on pedestrian-
crossing tasks (Chai and Zhao, 2016). More importantly, this study

5
Q. Zhang et al.
Fig. 4. Percentage of passing in front of the target pedestrian in the angry,
happy and neutral conditions. Error bars indicate the 95% confidence intervals.
found that anger affects drivers’ strategy and approach when they
attempt to avoid pedestrians; drivers showed a higher frequency of
passing in front of pedestrians and a closer lateral distance to pedes­
trians. However, it is worth noting that the effect of anger on the lateral
distance to pedestrians and vehicles occurred only when the pedestrians
appeared on the right side. It seems that pedestrians passing from the left
side pose less threat to drivers than those passing from the right side, and
drivers do not need to stop or change lanes to avoid hitting these pe­
destrians. Future research should pay more attention to the influence of
pedestrian-vehicle distance and the pedestrian-driver position relation­
ship (i.e., near-driver side/off-driver side) on drivers’ hazard perception.
We compared the effects of anger and happiness and found that the
impact of the two emotions on driving performance in avoiding pedes­
trians differed, which may highlight the effect of emotional valence
rather than arousal. First, based on previous studies showing that
arousing affect, including positive and negative affect, led to increased
risky driving (Eherenfreund-Hager et al., 2017), we expected both
happiness and anger to lead to greater average driving velocity. The
Fig. 5. Means of minimum driving speed in the angry, happy and neutral conditions. Error bars indicate the 95% confidence intervals.
6
Accident Analysis and Prevention 171 (2022) 106664
current findings do not support this hypothesis, possibly because the
arousal of happy emotions was not high enough. According to the
inverted U-shaped curve relationship between task performance and
arousal, performance is predicted to be inhibited by arousal levels that
are too high or too low (Teigen, 1994; Yerkes, 2004). In the current
study, self-reported emotional arousal after anger induction was
significantly higher than that after happiness induction, although
arousal was higher in both conditions than in the neutral condition. That
is, happiness did not have the same negative impact on driving behav­
iour as anger because its arousal was not high enough. Second, happi­
ness did not lead to more risky pedestrian avoidance patterns than
anger, which supports the hypothesis. The avoidance pattern is a strat­
egy of driving that depends on the driver’s prosocial attitudes and cur­
rent situation, such as time pressure. Previous studies have indicated
that persons in negative emotional states are more likely to take risks in
gambling, strategic decisions and lottery tasks (Arkes et al., 1988; Isen
and Patrick, 1983; Kuvaas and Kaufmann, 2010; Mittal and Ross, 1998),
are less likely to compromise in consumer decision making (Chuang and
Lin, 2007), and are less likely to have difficulties with impulse control in
compulsive eating and procrastination (Tice et al., 2001) than those in
positive emotional states. Driving with extra care around pedestrians
and driving more cautiously to accommodate people or vehicles on the
side of the road (e.g., slowing down, moving over) are considered pro­
social driving behaviours (Harris et al., 2014). Although there is
currently no direct evidence that emotions affect prosocial driving
behaviour, a large body of research in the field of social psychology
suggests that arousing positive emotions can promote altruistic behav­
iour (Cialdini et al., 1982). That is, driving performance related to
prosocial attitudes is primarily affected by emotional valence rather
than arousal. It seems that the impact of emotional valence on driving
tasks reflects the impact on the cognitive processes involved.
The present study has some limitations that should be addressed in
future studies. First, the materials used for emotion induction were film
clips unrelated to driving, so the induced emotions faded as the drivers
transferred their attention to the driving tasks. Although it has been
found that positive emotions induced by driving-related and driving-
unrelated video clips are both related to higher self-reported willing­
ness to drive recklessly (Taubman-Ben-Ari, 2012), using driving-related
materials to induce emotions can better promote this state, making it
more likely to continue during the driving task. In addition, emotions
Q. Zhang et al.
Fig. 6. Mean lateral distance to target pedestrians in the angry, happy and neutral conditions. Error bars indicate the 95% confidence intervals.
can be measured using more objective metrics rather than self-reported
methods, which are susceptible to experimental manipulation. Second,
we manipulated three types of emotions in a within-participant design,
which avoided the effects of individual differences in material under­
standing and emotional experience. However, this approach might have
led to carry-over effects due to the relatively short break between the
induction of different emotions. Third, the sample in this study was
small and consisted of males with rich driving experience, which limits
the generalization of the research conclusions.
5. Conclusion
The present study investigated the effect of anger and happiness on
driving performance in a pedestrian-crossing task by comparing the two
emotions, which were found to have different impacts. The study suc­
cessfully demonstrated that anger not only leads to risky driving
behaviour (e.g., speeding) but also encourages drivers to be more
impulsive in their avoidance patterns and strategy choices in pedestrian-
crossing tasks. However, there was no difference between the impact of
happy and neutral moods on driving behaviour. High arousal is thought
to be associated with risky driving in general (e.g., speeding), while
avoidance behaviour patterns in pedestrian-crossing tasks, as a driving
behaviour related to prosocial attitudes, are presumed to be related to
emotional valence.
6. Research implications
Driving anger poses many threats to road safety, and researchers
have tried to intervene in a number of ways, such as through driving
safety education and intervention for high-risk drivers. The results of the
current study suggest that interventions for anger during driving can
reduce arousal, but they should also consider valence. In addition, more
targeted emotional interventions are needed for driving tasks involving
different cognitive processes. In vehicle-human interaction traffic sce­
narios, the choice of driving behaviour is often related to prosocial at­
titudes. Anger interventions that focus on shifting valence may be more
effective in improving driving performance.
7
Accident Analysis and Prevention 171 (2022) 106664
7. Authors’ statement
Qian Zhang: Conceived and designed the experiments, Data-
Analysis, Manuscript Writing.
Weina Qu: Conceived and designed the experiments, Supported
funding.
Yan Ge: Conceived and designed the experiments , Manuscript
Writing, Supported funding.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This study was partially supported by the National Key R&D Program
of China (Grant No. 2021YFC3001500, the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 32071066, 32071064), the National
Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFC3001500) and the Key
Projects of the PLA’s 13th Five-Year Logistic Research Plan
(BKJ19J012).
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Weina Qu received the Ph.D. degree from Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences in 2011. She is an Associate Professor at Institute of Psychology, Chinese Acad­
emy of Sciences. Her main research interest is driving safety, and human-computer
interaction.
Yan Ge received the Ph.D. degree from Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences in 2008. She is an Associate Professor at Institute of Psychology, Chinese Acad­
emy of Sciences. Her main research interest is emotion, driving safety, and human-
computer interaction.

Qian Zhang received the Ph.D. degree from Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences in 2019. She is an Assistant Professor at School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal
University, Xi’an, China. Her main research interest is emotion and driving safety.