MSN: Wealthy Prius drivers can be huge jerks

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” - Mark Twain

There is a good reason Prius should have dashcams. As for this 'study', well the first thing is to look for independent facts and data that support this claim. Sad to say, there are the two flawed studies from the NHTSA supporting the "Bell the Hybrid" law on the shelf.

Well guess I'll have to rethink my hood ornament:


Not the first time and certainly not the last we'll see such nonsense.

Bob Wilson

 

^^^Dang I was hoping Toyota would adopt that hood ornament...Honda has is already
Well its not me, I am poor Prius driver, we shall save the Earth..no more, no less.

 

Last time I looked in my checkbook I wasn't wealthy.

 

Wealthy Prius drivers can be huge jerks
A researcher says they are more likely to commit infractions behind the wheel than other car owners.
By Kim Peterson 12 hours ago

Rich people are more likely to be bad drivers with little respect for pedestrians. And Toyota Prius and BMW drivers may be the worst of all.

That's according to Paul Piff, a researcher with the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California Berkeley. He published a paper in 2010 on his research into the relationship between bad driving habits and wealth, and he spoke to The New York Times recently about his findings.

Piff and his team staked out a crosswalk and an intersection in California and watched what happened when pedestrians and cars approached. What they found might not surprise anyone.

In a four-way stop intersection, the pricier cars were more likely to jump ahead when it wasn't their turn to go, Benjamin Preston writes in The New York Times.


The researchers also found that at crosswalks, female drivers were more likely to stop for pedestrians than men. All drivers were more likely to stop for a woman than for a man.

Piff also studied car makes and models in these environments and said BMW drivers are awful at crosswalks. "BMW drivers were the worst," he said.

Prius drivers are also horrible, especially with broader driving infractions. Not what you'd expect from the stereotype of the environmentally conscious, do-gooder Prius owner.

"In our higher-status vehicle category, Prius drivers had a higher tendency to commit infractions than most," Piff told the paper.

Piff has done other tests showing that the wealthy lean toward unethical behavior. He has found that wealthy people are more likely to admit that they would steal paper at work or cheat at a computer game of dice.
__________________________________________________________________

Kim Peterson Bite ME! Proud to be a Prius Owner and law abiding citizen.

 

Dear Professor Piff,

Having read your excellent study showing Prius drivers are law breakers, I've decided to reform. So which car should I buy to become law abiding?

Bob Wilson

 

But those horns are pointed upward not forward.
It's so much harder to disembowl pedestrians that way.

 

What about a police cruiser?

I feel so much more wealthier now that I've read Mr. Piff's comment.
Now if only I can get somebody will pass me the Grey PouPon.

If Piff did his study here in the Greater metro area of DC - he would have found that idiots and jerks can be found driving in all sorts of vehicles. Every year, motor vehicles hit and kill several unlucky local cyclists and pedestrians. And its not just private cars either- recently, a mass transit bus hit a pedestrian at the bus stop- who then later died at the hospital.

 

The pickup owners around here are the worst IMO. Or maybe that is just because it appears I am on the "construction shift" for my commute with all the contractors.

Of course the last car to almost run me off the road was a 5 series. He was like looking in his passenger footwell while trying to go 70. Came very close to trading paint with me as he wandered out of his lane.

 

Wealthy Prius drivers can be huge jerks- MSN Money

So now my C is in the same class as a Bimmer and I'm wealthy .
Love the comments column.

 

No numbers to back anything up here...and what is a wealthy Prius driver anyways, my C was purchased to save money, not because I'm wealthy?

 

OK - so the study was based largely on watching behavior at a crosswalk. I wonder how many of the Prius drivers were trying to retain their momentum instead of coming to a complete stop?

 

We don't perceive the world as it "is", we perceive the world as we are.

 

After six months of Prius ownership, I feel I'm a better driver. With the exception of occasional rolling stops. Big difference between Prius and BMW drivers.

 

I'd rather be defined as conservative, rather than wealthy, if I was.

 

Oh no! I've been found out!!! In what shall I masquerade my devious law-breaking, "jerk-among-us" personification going forward? I know... please bring back the AMC Pacer!!!

 

I can't imagine why anyone would think that about me!

 

I think this the study, but it's behind a paywall.
Having less, giving more: the influence o... [J Pers Soc Psychol. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI

The last actual fender bender I had was with a Prius. We rubbed his left rear quarter panel with my right front. It happened when he cut in front of me after passing me on the shoulder, while doing 60+mph. Then he took off. First time I wished I had a dash cam.

 

I really don't get it. All of this "I hate Prius and their owners" stuff in the comments after this article and on a day to day basis. I am a very good driver and have been told so by many. I have autocrossed in the past, had large SUVs and Jeeps. I drive the posted speed limit or 5 mph above. I have never been a left lane bandit , even when I drove 400 hp muscle cars. I traded my FJ Cruiser in on the Prius, not because I wanted to save the world or be smug, but rather to not drop off 65-70 bucks per week at the gas station. When I did drive the SUVs , I never had a problem with most small car owners. It was the distracted drivers. Texting, yacking on the phone, reading paperwork or even putting make up on while supposedly driving. There is your real danger. I'd rather face off with a drunk behind the wheel of a Checker Marathon than a teenaged texter behind the wheel of a Miata.

 

It is a little worse than that as I went to the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" and read both the paper and supporting data documentation:

• The original study does encode the vehicle make but makes no mention of model.
• The observer 'ranks' the vehicle 'class'.
• The supporting data only shows rankings and numbers, not make or model.
• The word "Prius" does not show up in either document.

What we have here is a 'researcher' after the fact claiming 1/3 of all Prius observed busted through the cross walk. We do not know if there were three Prius and one busted the cross walk or not.

Now I noticed the paper had excellent photos showing the intersections and stills of their protocol. It would have been reasonable to use cameras, better still concealed cameras, to document each instance. Perhaps taking a photo of the license plate and then getting owner information could more accurately identify the test subject's class and ask them to also participate in the other 'tests'. At least then there would be some basis in fact.

I fault the study because we don't see the raw data and the claimed methodology leaves ambiguous how the "Prius problem" was measured. Strange that a year and a half later the author reports this "Prius" problem:

• November 8, 2011 - submitted
• January 26, 2012 - published
• August 2013 - the "Prius problem" is revealed

You know, 47% of us suspect the recent reports of a Prius problem has a curiously long gestration period. It was not mention in the earlier paper.

Now my understanding is Northern Virginia and other jurisdictions have traffic cameras used to capture red-light runners. I would have more faith in using traffic camera data for studies of make-and-model violations of traffic laws.

Bob Wilson