Research on Emotion Activation Efficiency of Different Drivers

Emotion is an implicit psychological characteristic that changes over time. When it accumulates to a certain extent, it will be accompanied by certain external manifestations. Drivers with different traits have different emotional performance, which leads to different effects from different driver traits on the driver’s emotional activation efficacy. In this study, we thoroughly explore the effects of different genders, age, driving competence, driving anger tendency, driving safety attitude and stress state on driver’s emotional activation efficacy. This paper selects 74 young and middle-aged drivers with an age distribution between 20 and 41 years old. The eight most typical driving emotions (anger, surprise, fear, anxiety, helplessness, contempt, ease and pleasure) were screened through questionnaires. An experimental framework for the emotional stimulation and measurement of eight driving emotions was designed based on multiple emotional stimulation methods and PAD emotional model. The effect of emotional activation on drivers of different genders, age, driving competence, driving anger tendency, driving safety attitude and stress state was explored in depth. The results show that gender, age, driving safety attitude, driving anger tendency, stress state, etc., all have different degrees of influence upon the activation efficacy of emotion. The research results reveal the rules for the generation of different driving emotions to a certain extent and provide a theoretical basis for further exploring the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of drivers with different emotions.