What determines your speed?

Ben Lewis-Evans at the University of Groningen discovered in his PhD research that driving speed is not completely the result of conscious choice. Drivers (test subjects) drove more slowly when their driving simulator flashed up masked images. This means that emotions that we don’t even know we have can influence driving speed, which could have consequences for the design of the traffic environment, including billboards and advertising, and for driving safety campaigns.

The weekly online video magazine Unifocus highlights topics related to the University of Groningen in the fields of research and society, student life, teaching, policy and internationalization.