Although some descriptions of stereotypes about drivers are documented in the literature, the specific behaviours representing these stereotypes have not been previously explored. In addition to identifying specific behaviours associated with stereotypes about female drivers, this thesis looks at the way that these stereotypes may be affected by the age of the stereotyped driver. Furthermore, a debate exists in the field of social psychology about whether the awareness of these stereotypes affects the performance of drivers from the stereotyped groups through the phenomenon known as stereotype threat. This thesis explores these topics through a series of three studies. In the first study, participants watched videos illustrating a variety of driving behaviours and indicated whether the driver was more likely to be male or female. In the second study, participants were told to imagine male and female drivers of different ages approaching a car, and the participants were asked to indicate which driver was more likely to take the wheel of the car and whether that driver was the safer of the two. In the third study, which consisted of two experiments, female participants were invited to complete several driving scenarios in a driving simulator. The first of the two experiments had two conditions: stereotype threat and neutral; the second experiment had an enhanced stereotype threat and a counterstereotype condition. The findings of the first study elucidated the specific behaviours that are stereotypically associated with male and female drivers. The second study showed that in many ways, driving is still considered to be a man’s prerogative, since men were frequently rated as more likely to drive and safer drivers than women. The results of the third study showed that the effects of these stereotypes on drivers can be difficult to detect using the stereotype threat paradigm in a driving simulator environment. Although stereotypes about male and female drivers from different age groups are still prevalent, their effects on the behaviour of the drivers from the stereotyped groups may be elusive and hard to reproduce in a simulated driving context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/43597 |
| Date | 16 May 2022 |
| Creators | Kadulina, Yara |
| Contributors | Gagnon, Sylvain |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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