Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 2017, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1-7 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/jsa/1/1/1 ©Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/jsa-1-1-1 Shouting and Cursing while Driving: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment Francisco Alonso 1,* , Cristina Esteban 1 , Andrea Serge 1 , Mª Luisa Ballestar 2 1 DATS (Development and Advising in Traffic Safety) Research Group, INTRAS (University Research Institute on Traffic and Road Safety), University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain 2 METRAS (Measurement, Evaluation, Analysis, and Data Processing of Traffic Accidents and Road Safety) Research Group, INTRAS (University Research Institute on Traffic and Road Safety), University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain *Corresponding author: datspublications@gmail.com Abstract Traffic accidents are a major cause of death and injury in the world. Generally speaking about aggression, evidence has shown that drivers who use to express more aggressive behaviors tend, at the same time, to have higher rates of road crashes or traffic incidents. Furthermore, in most cases, the situations that appear aggressive behaviors are typical of normal current traffic conditions, making this behavior into something very common and very serious road safety issue. It has been also related with the clear lack of Road Safety Education that is evident in most of the countries. The aim of this study was to describe the factors and perceptions related to aggressive behavior of verbally insulting and shouting out while driving. In this study, it was described an extensive list of behaviors that experts consider more or less unanimously as "aggressive driving", one of them described as shouting and insult. In this study, the sample was obtained from a random sampling by proportional representation to population segments of age, sex, region and size of the municipality. The survey is aimed at Spanish drivers over 18 years. The starting sample size was 1,100 surveys. As result shout and insult are not considered a dangerous offense as it is driving under the influence of alcohol. Multiple modes of bad or risky maneuvers, will be banned from a legal point of view, uncomfortable and restrict other drivers and pedestrians, creating violent situations for risk and stress. The degree of social tolerance towards such behaviour is variable. Some individuals are limited to ignore them, accepting them as something inevitable. Multiple types of risky maneuvers and deliberated misbehaviors, which are (formally and informally) already forbidden from a legal point of view, uncomfortable and restrict other drivers and pedestrians, creating violent situations for risk and stress, are still performed among drivers. In short, aggression on driving is one of them. As a conclusion, there are a high prevalence of this phenomenon among Spanish drivers. Furthermore, most of the aggressive expressions related to shouting and cursing on the road ate preceded by subjective factors such as stress, fatigue and personality traits, which may be intervened thorough the strengthen of road safety education and road safety campaigns. Keywords: smoking, driving, road safety, infraction, normative, driving misbehaviors Cite This Article: Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, and Mª Luisa Ballestar, “Shouting and Cursing while Driving: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment.” Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, vol. 1, no. 1 (2017): 1-7. doi: 10.12691/jsa-1-1-1. 1. Introduction Traffic accidents are a major cause of death and injury in the world. According to the World Health Organization, 1.23 million people worldwide die each year because of a traffic accident [1,2]. Generally speaking about aggression, we could define this concept as any behavior with which people try to harm or inflict injury (physical, moral, psychological or social) to another or others. Respect, "aggressive driving" is defined as the behavior of an angry or impatient driver who intentionally endangers the life of another driver, passenger or pedestrian, in response to an argument, dispute or grievance traffic. In most cases, the situations that appear aggressive behaviors are typical of normal current traffic conditions, making this behavior into something very common and very serious road safety issue [3,4,5]. It has been also related with the clear lack of Road Safety Education that is evident in most of the countries [6,7]. The causes of aggressive driving are very complex and this may be due to multiple factors [8,9], instead aggressive reactions are always preceded by an emotional state, which may have originated in their own personal circumstances [10,11], or be triggered by external, or the observed behaviors in other drivers or pedestrians. A nervous or angry driver may be more susceptible, have lower tolerance for frustration or be less tolerant of the behavior of others [5,8] . Moreover, and as any emotional reaction, aggressiveness is also modulated by the subjective interpretation of the situation and the type of authority to do about the intentions of others. The sake of simplicity, when explaining the origin of aggressive behavior in general, and particularly those manifested in driving, scientific studies have distinguished between internal causes specific to