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Researchers Find Hidden Micro-Stressors in Routine Driving [uh.edu]:

Commuters around the world dream of ideal driving conditions every day, but they rarely get them. The traffic is often heavy and gets worse when the weather turns sour. Light traffic and good weather are usually perceived as factors for a stress-free commute. Alas, researchers from the University of Houston and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute found that even under such ideal conditions, daily driving is stressful to many people, and for intriguing reasons.

In a study published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing [ieee.org], researchers report that people with a predisposition to anxiety exhibit a significantly higher heart rate when they drive as opposed to those who are not predisposed to anxiety. Anxious drivers had a heart rate about five beats per minute higher than non-anxious drivers, under similar conditions.

The study's researchers also found drivers' heart rate increased significantly with car speed. Drivers moving at 65 mph had a heart rate of about four beats per minute higher than drivers moving at 25 mph, under similar conditions. In both cases, the observed cardiovascular activation was linked to sympathetic activation, that is, to stress responses.

"These are substantial numbers that we would have never guessed", said Ioannis Pavlidis, Eckhard-Pfeiffer Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, who led the University of Houston group. "Anxious people who commute at highway speeds experience, on average, heart rate elevation of nine beats per minute; this is every day for an hour or more, which is the typical commuting time in this country. It is an unexpected stressor that is hard to ignore because of its substantial effect and its repetitive nature."

[...] "Because driving is ingrained into people's lives, even individuals who exhibit the said stress responses are not consciously aware of them. Nevertheless, the responses are there, they are substantial and their long-term implications are unknown," said Pavlidis.

For the short term, these micro-stressors appear to overload the drivers who experience them, because for similar itineraries, afflicted drivers consistently report being more tired than non-afflicted drivers, he added. Collectively, the study's long- and short-term results have potential lifestyle, safety and insurance implications, the researchers noted.

Journal Reference:
M. T. Hasan et al., "Investigating Cardiovascular Activation of Young Adults in Routine Driving," in IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, doi: 10.1109/TAFFC.2023.3291330 [doi.org].

Original Submission