Comments on: We are a gentle, road rage people

By: Martin Voelker

Martin Voelker — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:14:01 +0000

I friend of my wife’s used this psychology back in the 80s to great success in crazy Boston traffic. His dreadful vehicle featured the sticker “Campus Crusade for Cthulhu” and other drivers reading this stayed at an unusually careful distance.

By: isabella mori

isabella mori — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:13:05 +0000

i’m going to have to try and get a hold of this study. it actually makes some intuitive sense. a strong need to announce one’s identity to the whole world, even people we don’t know and who we will in all likelihood never meet, could very well correlate we a tendency to be fiercely territorial.

correlations in psychological studies rarely explain more than 15% of the variation in a given population studied, so there would be ample room for rev. ricky’s explanation of why he/she uses bumper stickers.

By: Rev. Ricky

Rev. Ricky — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:52:33 +0000

Isn’t there a difference between bumper stickers that spout opinions and stickers that signal identity? My bumper stickers tell people I’m a UU, I’m gay, and I’m a cyclist. I see them creating community not defending territory. Knowing I have a UU license plate frame has many times kept me on my best behavior because I don’t want to reflect badly on the larger community.

By: Ms. Theologian

Ms. Theologian — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:19:31 +0000

I particularly like the part about territorial behavior not depending on the message of the bumper sticker….