Dear Editor

In daily life, traffic is often related to negative emotional states, namely hostility, which leads to a high probability of conflict between drivers. The frequent traffic violations by some drivers and the fear of those violations by others, as also well as the uncertainty of the consequences of such violations, may result in stress, anger or serious injuries¹1 . Schwebel DC, Severson J, Ball KK, Rizzo M. Individual difference factors in risky driving: the roles of anger/hostility, conscientiousness, and sensation seeking. Accid Anal Prev. 2006;38(4):801-10..

Emotions are an important element of our behavior and Ekman’s theorization has been widely accepted²2 . Ekman P, Cordaro D. What is meant by calling emotions basic. Emotion Rev. 2011;3:364-70.

3 . Levenson RW. Basic emotion questions. Emotion Rev. 2011;3:379-86.^-44 . Tracy JL, Randles D. Four models of basic emotions: a review of Ekman and Cordaro, Izard, Levenson, and Panksepp and Watt. Emotion Rev. 2012;3(4):397-405.. His studies revealed that certain basic emotions⁵5 . Ekman P. Basic emotions. In: Dalgleish T, Power M, eds. Handbook of cognition and emotion. New York: Wiley; 1999. are phylogenetically adapted to allow individuals to face different daily problems, which require a rapid and effective response²2 . Ekman P, Cordaro D. What is meant by calling emotions basic. Emotion Rev. 2011;3:364-70.^,55 . Ekman P. Basic emotions. In: Dalgleish T, Power M, eds. Handbook of cognition and emotion. New York: Wiley; 1999.^,66 . Damásio A. O erro de descartes: emoção, razão e cérebro humano. 21ª ed. Lisboa: Publicações Europa América; 2000.. Several authors⁷7 . Plutchik R. Emotions and life: perspectives from psychology, biology, and evolution. Washington: American Psychological Association; 2003.

8 . Ackerman BP, Abe JA, Izard CE. Differential emotions theory and emotional development: mindful of modularity. In: Mascolo M, Griffin S, eds. What develops in emotional development? New York: Plenum; 1998. p. 85-106.

9 . Nahas EAP, Nahás-Neto J, Pontes A, Dias J, Fernandes CE. Estados hiperprolactinêmicos – inter-relações com o psiquismo. Rev Psiq Clín. 2006;33(2):68-73.^-1010 . Larrington C. The psychology of emotion and study of the medieval period. Early Medieval Europe. 2001;10(2):251-6. reported that some situations activate basic emotions that emerge in a coherent pattern due the similarity of goals among them. The pattern of hostility has received special interest because of its association with traffic situations¹1 . Schwebel DC, Severson J, Ball KK, Rizzo M. Individual difference factors in risky driving: the roles of anger/hostility, conscientiousness, and sensation seeking. Accid Anal Prev. 2006;38(4):801-10., diseases⁹9 . Nahas EAP, Nahás-Neto J, Pontes A, Dias J, Fernandes CE. Estados hiperprolactinêmicos – inter-relações com o psiquismo. Rev Psiq Clín. 2006;33(2):68-73., and some social life aspects like moral judgments¹⁰10 . Larrington C. The psychology of emotion and study of the medieval period. Early Medieval Europe. 2001;10(2):251-6.. It was suggested that each emotion represents a type of hostile motivation, which serves to overcome or reject the provoking stimulus and influences an adaptive response.

We aimed to compare two contexts of conflict that generate intense emotions, to verify their validity in discriminating these emotions, and whether these contexts elicit hostility. The contexts were two 90 seconds films recorded by police vehicles, one involving real traffic accidents and the other traffic violations. To test the effectiveness of those films in inducing emotions, we used an adaptation of the Izard emotional assessment scale⁸8 . Ackerman BP, Abe JA, Izard CE. Differential emotions theory and emotional development: mindful of modularity. In: Mascolo M, Griffin S, eds. What develops in emotional development? New York: Plenum; 1998. p. 85-106. with a variation from 0 to 5 (low-high intensity). One hundred and fifty drivers were selected by the “snowball” method to voluntarily participate (79 men and 71 women). They have an average age of 43.26 years (SD = 8.857) and an average of 20.40 years of driving experience (SD = 8.364). After each driver watched both films, they were asked to indicate the intensity of their emotional states.

Results suggested (Table 1) that the both films were effective, as expected, in inducing significantly intense basic emotions. However, intensity was higher during the traffic violations film. For the statistical analysis each emotion was paired using both films and the results revealed significant differences for surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and contempt emotions. These results show the validity of Ekman’s theory to discriminate the basic emotions in both contexts. Additionally, they highlighted anger, surprise and fear as more intense emotions, maybe due to the uncertainty of the consequences of traffic violations or the lack of punitions. The stress caused by the uncertainty may lead subjects to experience a drop in their attention span and therefore, increase the risk of an accident. Moreover, accidents do not generate such intense emotions once damage has already happened. Our results show that it is important to understand the influence of emotions during daily driving, since road rage and traffic violations are frequent and road accidents are a tragedy all over the world.

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