Bumper Sticker Road Rage!

[Gingersnap]

Bumper stickers signal hostility

A CSU professor finds that drivers with "territorial markers" are more likely to express rage with a vehicle.

By Shankar Vedantam
The Washington Post

Article Last Updated: 06/17/2008 12:32:31 AM MDT

Three horrors await Americans who get behind the wheel of a car for a family road trip this summer: the spiraling price of gas, the usual choruses of "Are we there yet?" and the road rage of fellow drivers.

Divine intervention might be needed for the first two problems, but science has discovered a solution for the third.

Watch out for cars with bumper stickers.

That's the surprising conclusion of a recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko. Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other "territorial markers" not only get mad when someone cuts in their lane or is slow to respond to a changed traffic light, but they are far more likely than those

who do not personalize their cars to use their vehicles to express rage — by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior.

It doesn't seem to matter whether the messages on the stickers are about peace and love ("Visualize World Peace," "My Kid Is an Honor Student") or angry and in your face ("Don't Mess With Texas," "My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student").

Do you have any bumber stickers, decals, vanity plates, or plate holders on your car?

Sticker Shock!

[linda22003]

No. The most daring thing I have on my car is a sticker that says OBX, indicating my support of the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a vacation spot.

My husband has a red, white, and blue "campaign" sticker on his car, indicating his support for his dream ticket, "Cheney/Voldemort '08".

[Gingersnap]

Say! That is attractive!

[linda22003]

That's it! :p

[TandT]

no bumper stickers for me ... only thing i have is military decal for base access

[Ranger Rick]

I have a Disney world license plate frame and two mickey stickers, and I terrorize other drivers in my 2000 Toyota Corolla.

[megimoo]

Do you have any bumber stickers, decals, vanity plates, or plate holders on your car?

Sticker Shock!

It makes sense,sorta .Those with strong opinions and aggressive natures are more likely to express them in a statement on their cars.
Those of more sedate personality avoid advertising their politics or religion on their bumpers.
Those with strong opinions and intelligence avoid advertising their feelings about church or politics to total strangers on the roads !And No .

[noonwitch]

I don't have any bumper stickers, now, but when Mayor Young of Detroit had a paternity suit pending against him, I had a sticker on my old Mustang that said "My Daddy's The Mayor".

Whatever one's opinion of Coleman was, the whole paternity suit, when he was well into his 70s, was one of the more hilarious scandals around here. Ultimately, no one got hurt and when the DNA tests came back, the old guy did right by his son and ended up leaving him a fortune. And you watch, that kid'll be Mayor of Detroit some day-he can't be any worse than the current Mayor.

Kwame's scandal has some humor to it, but at the bottom of it all, there is a murdered stripper, and there is nothing funny about that.

[asdf2231]

I have a Happy Bunny on mine:


And an American flag sticker.

[Junebug68]

I have an American flag star of life (what you see on ambulances) and a decal of my ambulance companies patch on my car- I'm a nerd :)