Htqe.2025.30

https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2025.30 | 423-437 | PDF

Perspective-Taking, Personality, Driving Behavior, and Their Relationship to Risk Perception in Traffic Situations

Ronalds Cinks¹,², Ivars Austers¹, Ģirts Dimdiņš¹, Mārtiņš Priedols¹, Klāvs Ēvelis¹, Inese Muzikante¹,²
¹University of Latvia, Latvia
²Riga Technical University, Riga Business School, Latvia

Abstract
Traffic accidents remain a serious global issue, and human factors are recognized as important contributors to the issue. Perspective-taking has shown positive outcomes in various social domains and has also received some attention in traffic psychology research. Studies suggest that lower perspective-taking levels are related to higher antisocial behavior in traffic contexts. Additionally, individuals with experience across multiple modes of transportation tend to be less involved in traffic accidents, an effect partially attributed to increased perspective-taking. The main aim was to examine whether perspective-taking is related to traffic situation evaluations, mainly in terms of risk perception and outcome prediction. A secondary aim was to investigate whether personality traits, dark triad traits, self-reported driving behavior, and demographic variables mediate the relationship between perspective-taking, risk perception, and outcome prediction. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 employed a cross-sectional design while study 2 replicated this design and included order manipulation to test whether considering perspective-taking beforehand would influence risk perception and traffic outcome prediction. In both studies participants evaluated traffic situation videos. The results did not reveal any significant effects of perspective-taking on video evaluations, except for confidence in one’s evaluations. However, dark triad traits and self-reported driving behavior were significantly associated with traffic situation perception evaluations.

Keywords: dark triad traits, personality traits, perspective-taking, risk perception, traffic psychology

In: Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2025. Proceedings of Scientific Papers = Cilvēks, tehnoloģijas un izglītības kvalitāte, 2025. Rakstu krājums.  Ed. L. Daniela. Riga: University of Latvia, 2025. 698 p.
ISBN 978-9934-36-461-7 
https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2025