Sensitivity of Physiological Measures of Acute Driver Stress: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

Background: The link between driving performance impairment and driver stress is well-established. Identifying and understanding driver stress is therefore of major interest in terms of safety. Although many studies have examined various physiological measures to identify driver stress, none of these has as yet been definitively confirmed as offering definitive all-round validity in practice. Aims: Based on the data available in the literature, our main goal was to provide a quantitative assessment of the sensitivity of the physiological measures used to identify driver stress. The secondary goal was to assess the influence of individual factors (i.e., characteristics of the driver) and ambient factors (i.e., characteristics of the context) on driver stress. Age and gender were investigated as individual factors. Ambient factors were considered through the experimental apparatus (real-road vs. driving simulator), automation driving (manual driving vs. fully autonomous driving) and stressor exposure duration (short vs. long-term). Method: Nine meta-analyses were conducted to quantify the changes in each physiological measure during high-stress vs. low-stress driving. Meta-regressions and subgroup analyses were performed to assess the moderating effect of individual and ambient factors on driver stress. Results: Changes in stress responses suggest that several measures are sensitive to levels of driver stress, including heart rate, R-R intervals (RRI) and pupil diameter. No influence of individual and ambient factors was observed for heart rate. Applications and Perspective: These results provide an initial guide to researchers and practitioners when selecting physiological measures for quantifying driver stress. Based on the results, it is recommended that future research and practice use (i) multiple physiological measures, (ii) a triangulation-based methodology (combination of measurement modalities), and (iii) a multifactorial approach (analysis of the interaction of stressors and moderators).