People and their Cars
According to the BMW survey,
women are more likely to use the word
"idiot" while driving. Dan4th tagged
this Flickr photo "idiots" in May 2006A report released last week by BMW is sparking several conversations -- surprisingly, the report itself doesn't appear to be available online. "The Secret Life of Cars and What They Reveal About Us" is based on survey responses by 1,000 U.K. drivers. The report was authored by British researchers Iain MacRury (University of East London) and Peter Marsh (Social Issues Research Centre).
According to news reports, BMW's research finds that:
- Men consider their cars an extension of themselves, whereas women see it as a separate entity The Electric New Paper (SG)
- Men alone get out of a car in seconds, whereas families with children take several minutes to unpack (no word on how quick women are on their own) The Scotsman (UK)
- Women are more likely to be rude and less likely to apologize while driving RAC Foundation (UK)
- Men are more likely to drive one-handed Telegraph (UK)
- Among one-handed drivers, women were more likely to place their spare hand in their lap, whereas men placed it on the gear shift Daily Mail (UK)
One phrase that keeps being repeated in all these "news" reports (and admittedly, it's pretty soft news) is something along the lines of "researchers confirmed what ___ have long suspected" -- with the blank being women if the reporter focused on a male stereotype, and vice versa. Only the RAC Foundation blog expressed surprise at results, in discussing women's rudeness behind the wheel. Another issue I have with the stories is that only two of the sources linked above mentioned that the study was commissioned by BMW.