Markings on cars–and people–as a clue to alcoholism and, therefore, the potential for violence.
“Be cautious of dealing with people driving cars with bumper stickers.â€
So concluded a recent paper by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. The “surprising”results of the study on which the paper is based found that drivers of cars with “territorial markers”including bumper stickers, decals and personalized license plates were far more likely than others to express anger or rage by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior. The message of the sticker”peaceful and loving or angry or political”was irrelevant.
The researchers found that people who have no such markers on their cars get angry, too, but are less likely to act out on their anger. They may fume, but more often they keep it to themselves and move on. Szlemko also found that “the more markers a car has, the more aggressively the person tends to drive when provoked.”A co-author, Paul Bell, explained, “Territoriality is hard-wired into our ancestors from tens of thousands of years ago…because it had survival value.â€
Territoriality, then, is a product of the primitive brain and is likely to increase as the lower brain centers take greater control over behaviors. This is far more likely to occur where the neo-cortex is damaged, as in the case of alcoholism. As pointed out in “How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Recognize Addiction in its Early Stages” (p. 19), “This may explain the tendency [of alcoholics] to act without considering consequences, along with the manifestation of other uncivilized behaviors.â€
Another territorial marker is the tattoo. Before they became de rigueur, even a single modest one was probably an excellent clue to addiction. While this is no longer true, those with numerous body markings are probably far more likely to be addicts than others. Felons, 80-90% of whom are addicts, frequently have many tattoos”and anecdotally the more they have, the more likely they are addicts whose aggressive behaviors resulted in crimes for which they were imprisoned.
Consider a decal or tattoo as an ego-inflating device. The person with such a marker has a need to push his or her opinions”or machismo, or femininity, or whatever”on others. However, as with any clue we need to be careful. While U.S. smokers are more likely to be alcoholics than non-smokers, more than half are not. And a mea culpa: I used to place bumper stickers with a libertarian message on my cars, and still have my “Prevent Tragedy”Report Drunk Drivers”sticker on our older car. (After an apparent angry drunk left me a very threatening note in a restaurant parking lot, I opted not to put the sticker on our new cars.) But then, I’m an INTJ, a personality type that seems to gravitate towards “sharing”our opinions with others, as well as a child of an alcoholic. Ha!
Still, vehicle and body markers comprise yet another clue that we can put in our arsenal of tricks to help protect us from the capriciously erratic behaviors of the alcoholic. So the headline should read, “Be cautious of dealing with people with territorial markers such as bumper stickers and decals on their vehicles, or tattoos on their persons, since such markers increase the odds of alcoholism and, therefore, threatening behaviors.â€