Following a friend could make you an unsafe driver

Following a friend in a car could cause you to take more risks and make your driving more dangerous, a new study suggests.

If, as a driver, you’ve ever been told to follow someone in unfamiliar territory, there’s a good chance that you’ve felt pressured to keep up with them. New research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, suggests that such scenarios are likely to make your driving more reckless and erratic.

The study, carried out at Arizona State University, USA, involved students with a valid licence taking part in a driving simulation. They were told to follow a car in front, whilst also dealing with a number of ‘critical events’ such as a pedestrian crossing the road. Their reactions to these events, as well as their driving in general, was assessed by comparing how the students dealt with two other, control simulations. In these, the student was told to either follow the directions of a GPS navigation system, or to drive wherever they wanted.

According to the results, when the students were following the car in front, their driving became more dangerous, and they took more risks than during the control simulations. For instance, their speed increased, and rather than waiting for a pedestrian to cross the road the students instead chose to cut them off in order to keep up with the leading car.

“We have found that when someone is asked to follow another vehicle, it can lead to them engaging in risky driving behaviour such as driving faster, making more erratic turns and following too close to the car in front,” said Professor Rob Gray from the university’s Human Systems Engineering program.

One of the key features in the simulations was that the computer-controlled traffic followed the speed limit and obeyed all other traffic laws, which would ensure that the students weren’t exposed to so-called ‘contagion effects’. In other words, this made sure that their driving wasn’t influenced by surrounding traffic – for example, increasing their speed if the cars around them are speeding.

“It is important to note that in our simulation, the leader and other vehicles around them did not break any laws,” said Professor Gray, “so the follower was not just copying the risky driving behaviour they saw from someone else.”

The researchers attribute this change in behaviour to be at least partly induced by a fear of being left behind and getting lost, which ranks among the top ten driving-related fears.

According to the paper, following a friend is best avoided. Instead, using a map or GPS navigation system would provide a safer method or reaching your destination. If you have to follow someone, it’s important that the leader keeps an eye on their speed and doesn’t take any undue risks, even if they’re more familiar with the area.

Further work will put a bigger focus on the destination, says Professor Gray. “In the future, we plan to investigate whether some knowledge about the location of the destination can get rid of these dangerous effects.”