Calming the road rage: the role of nature exposure in reducing driving anger and promoting safer behaviours.

Abstract

Driving anger increases accident risk and undermines well-being, yet effective regulatory strategies remain understudied. Drawing on the emotion regulation framework, this study examines whether nature exposure can improve driving performance by regulating driving anger elicited by challenging driving scenarios. A total of 156 licenced drivers viewed either urban or natural landscape images before a simulated driving task under high traffic density and time pressure. Driving anger was measured using the adapted Task-Specific Driving Anger Scale (DAS), while driving behaviour was assessed through average speed, speeding frequency and frequency of lane departures without signalling. Results showed that nature exposure reduced anger, which in turn lowered speed, decreased speeding and diminished lane departures. A fuzzy comprehensive evaluation further corroborated the findings using an integrated indicator of driving safety. This study highlights the potential of nature-based regulation to reduce driving anger, with applications in driver training, waiting times and urban planning.