preview

Music Choices Affecting Driving Habits

Decent Essays

Whether you take long trips regularly, or you simply drive back and forth to work, you likely listen to music while you are driving. During this time, you may wonder, “Can different music choices affect your driving habits?” Studies have looked at this question and found that your music choices can influence how you drive. Negative Feelings Toward Song= Negative Driving Experience When it comes to music, your feelings concerning the song can influence your driving. In a UK study from 2013, eight people, four men and four women, each drove 500 miles. For the first half of the trip, they did not listen to music at all. The second half of the trip, they all listened to music. The study found that listening to music you do not like can be stressful and a distraction, which will negatively influence the …show more content…

For example, faster songs lead to more excitement, which can then cause the person to concentrate on the song more than on the road. Along with that, a faster, upbeat tempo can cause drivers to unconsciously speed up to match the song’s beat. That does not mean slower beats are ideal either. According to the study, slower songs can cause a person to relax too much, thereby making the person less alert. The ideal driving song will have between 60-80 beats per minute, which mimics the beat of the human heart. Looking at a few of the specific drivers in the study, one women drove faster and engaged in last-minute breaking when she was listening to hip-hop music. A male driver listening to a heavy metal playlist drove much faster than the other drivers. While it might not be shocking to find that both of these genres negatively influenced these drivers’ driving, many people might be surprised to learn that classical music actually caused one male and one female driver to drive more erratically than when they were not listening to any music at all. The Canadian

Get Access