MSN: Wealthy Prius drivers can be huge jerks

Do you mean not following the rules, because they thought they were above them? I would guess most of them. I am thinking the bmw drivers were doing this too. Men more likely than woman. Cars more often stopping for woman than men. The berekely study does have data. It may be that california prius drivers (and 1/3 of prii live in cali) feel more privileged than the rest of the country. Cali has more bmw drivers too proportionally to the rest of the country.

I am concerned about double blind rules though. Did they decide the prius drivers were wealthy after they saw them breaking the rules more often? Or were the cars catagorized that way before the study.

 

I have rarely seen an aggressive Prius driver. Not never - but rarely. On the other hand, the study seems to have BMW drivers pegged pretty well.

In my personal experience, as someone else mentioned, pickup drivers seem to be the worst for some reasons. Not in aggression, but arrogance - as in "I'll drive 52 mph in the left lane on the highway as long as I damn well please. And I don't care what speed the rest of the traffic wants to go."

 

When I first heard this part of the study, one of the authors said bmw and mercedes drivers. This fits more in the wealth effect. These new articles seem to be looking at some other part of the data. I have definitely seen prius in California run red lights. I have become more likely to roll a stop since buying my prius. The big flaunting of rules seems to be set forth by the state of California. Buy a hybrid and feel privileged by riding single occupant in the car pool lane. This goes right in line with the study. It also was followed by prii going slow in the car pool lane. I am sure those lexus hybrid drivers also were going slow in the car pool lane. Now that that privalage has gone away, will the behavior stay?

I'm in austin, and I have not noticed this at all,but they may be different where you live.

 

One untested hypothesis has to do with the distance of homes of the various cars from the one intersection and violations of the crosswalk. It has been my experience that those who 'live in the neighborhood' are more likely to flaunt a traffic sign or crosswalk because they feel familiar with the area and behavior.

Again, the study needs to be repeated in different cities and different intersections. But most of all, we need the raw numbers. We can not tell if the number of Prius observed were significant or if the sample size was too small . . . or the same Prius driver was circling the block wondering about these strangers in the neighborhood and recent crime events . . . while fingering his pistol.

Bob Wilson

 

I am not quite following you. Do you think that neighborhoods has a correlation with rudeness? The big thing the Berkeley authors were trying to tie together, was that if you had more money, that you were more likely to for example take more candy from children, or not stop for pedestrians. My guess is including the prius drivers in their wealthy class made that data look better.

Exploring the Psychology of Wealth, 'Pernicious' Effects of Economic Inequality | PBS NewsHour | June 21, 2013 | PBS
Note, they didn't even mention the prius in that piece.

I am not sure you will find as high of a correlation between prius and privilege in most neighborhoods outside california. Now you may not like the social psychology results, or agree with the methodology, but the studies authors in no way seem to be going out to make a point about prii.

 

In fact the Prius was not mentioned in the original paper and supplemental information. This new reveal came out ~18 months later.

I don't expect every study to be rigorous. But I don't give them a pass when the methodology is flawed.

Bob Wilson

 

>>>I'm in austin, and I have not noticed this at all,but they may be different where you live<<<


Rhode Island has a special breed of pickup driver As others have mentioned, these kind of studies need to be done in various spots across the country. I think we'll find very regional results.

 

Back in the 1980's, the "studies" done by the smart folks prooved that coffee caused higher incidence of cancer. When it was pointed out that the test group wasn't even screened for smokers - and adjusted accordingly ... the smart people went on to other things. I'm guessing they did the Prius study here.

I doubt whether this study was double blind ... meaning the folks jumping out into traffic for the researchers were told which cars they were trying to prove rudeness .... rather than jumping out in front of every and all types of vehicles - an equal number of times.

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My guess is it was in the raw data.

You then get questions to your conclusions. Hey those prius drivers were almost as likely to not stop for pedestrians as the bmw drivers. To which the authors can

A) Say that it goes against their data as prii are not expensive cars
B) Look at demographics and say wealthy drive prii and that is consistant with the hypothesis

Prius Is Richest Californians' Favorite Car, Topping Mercedes, BMW (PHOTOS)

Now I don't really get these other articles about the prius, but I have seen the drivers first hand. You notice it more when you own the car. Do the studies show prii drivers throughout the country do these things. Of course not. That would take more study, and I doubt that is what the berkely author's want to study. It would go against the grain of the department. I am sure some where hoping wealthy and liberal were more charitable and less cheating than wealthy and conservative. That is not what their study found.

 

The worst drivers are the ones who:

1. drink
2. hold their phone in front of their mouth to talk
3. never use their signals
4. wait until 9 pm to turn on their headlights
5. eat dinner while driving
6. weave in and out of lanes because they're late for the hourly-wage job
7. roll past stop signs
8. accelerate when the light turns yellow
9. slam on their brakes whenever they see a white Crown Victoria
10. park on the line at the mall

Poor and rich people both do these things in every kind of car. Sorry but you'll look like a fool if you tell Junior that Prius drivers should be avoided at all costs. Many of us are actually very informed about traffic laws.

 

And yet the study seems to say the wealthy are likely to be those that don't stop for pedestrians and don't wait their turn and 4 way stops. The study was about minor cheating, not major unsafe driving. Those profiles tend to go above 64 or under 25.
Report: Older drivers involved in high share of deadly crashes | Juneau Empire - Alaska's Capital City Online Newspaper

Add in those with drivers under 25, and you get a big skew.


You could do a similar study for low wage hourly workers, but said hourly workers in california are less likley to own a bmw, mercedes, or prius in california.

Distracted driving is a leading cause of accidents. Holding the phone in front of the mouth (not having a bluetooth device in the car is not a statistically significant reduction of accidents from phone use. You don't even need to have a phone to be distracted. I was rear ended by a car, inwhich the speeding driver was in a heated discussion with the other 3 women in her car, and didn't notice my brake lights as I slowed to not hit a dog.

 

Well I didn't have to do a study.

I've long known wealthy people can be jerks.

When I was a kid, I went to a school that used to do a yearly fundraiser. We had to sell candy...door to door.

My friend and I once thought it would be a good idea to canvass the affluent neighborhood. So we spent the day going door to door in the "rich" neighborhood.

Cheapest Bastards on the planet.

The strange thing was they weren't going to buy. BUT...they all felt obligated to make up some type of cover story as to why they weren't buying. I never met so many people who were allergic to candy or had just bought candy.

Anyway, far more sales and generosity...and honesty...in the middle class and poor neighborhoods.

But bottom line? Jerks will be jerks. I don't really tie it into what vehicle they happen to own or drive.

 

There are people who have a Pavlovian response to the Prius: simply mention it and they go into a rage. The word "elite" gets thrown around a lot as empty slur, but there's nothing elite about owning a Prius. My last car was a Yaris, and the Prius C was not a lot more, so when I needed to get a new car, I chose the Prius c. I regularly wave pedestrians though the intersection. The Prius (even the non-C models) isn't a terribly expensive car.

We don't know the sample size, and trusting human eyeballs rather than cameras makes the data quite suspect. With a camera, other people can verify the data for themselves, and you can eliminate bias from the observer. I agree that "discovering" this two years later is suspicious.

 

In Philly everyone does "rolling stops" if they bother to stop at all.
The right of way is to who ever gets there first.
Red lights mean 5 more cars can go though the intersection after it turns red.

 

I know that this varies regionally. The Berkeley study said that 90% followed the law and stopped, so it is likely that a different result might have happened in Philadelphia or Chicago.

 

Shoot, I know some towns where the observers would have likely gotten run over. . . . Especially if anything, leaves, rain, or anything else were falling out of the sky.

Bob Wilson

 

I have both Prius and BMW... Am I the worst worst driver??

 

If you live in California, are wealthy, and over 65, then the answer is likely yes. I am sure the google database could tell us for sure, but what do your friends say?

 

No, there has to be someone out there with both of those and a Mercedes too.

 

First thing I had thought!