Inducing driving anger with multi-stage road events in simulator environment

This study aims to: (1) design and validate a novel driving-anger induction method using multi-stage simulated road events and (2) experimentally explore the influence of individual characteristics on anger intensity. Thirty-six drivers participated in the experiment, who were classified into the high trait anger (HTA) and low trait anger (LTA) groups. Each driver completed driving tasks in two scenarios under time pressure: with and without multi-stage anger-inducing events, and subjective and physiological data were collected. The scenarios with anger-inducing events led to significantly higher anger intensity, skin conductivity, breathing rate, and pupil diameter. Differences between HTA and LTA drivers during anger were mainly in subjective evaluations rather than physiological responses. The results also showed that the drivers in both groups tended to under-report their own anger intensity. This study provides a new method for inducing driving anger. The findings may contribute to future anger detection and intervention system designs.