Association of personality traits and traffic accident involvement: a multicenter case-control study in Iran

Driver-associated factors are significant contributors to road traffic accidents. Conversely, personality traits are the characteristics and qualities that define an individual's consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Driving behavior is influenced by a variety of factors. We hypothesized that different personality traits may affect driving behavior. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between various personality traits and involvement in accidents.

Drivers with a history of accidents resulting in injuries for which they were at fault were classified as cases, and drivers without a history of an accident in the past year were considered as controls. We assessed the Big Five personality traits among all participants using the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) test. Additionally, we collected data on potential determinants of high-risk driving, including age, marital status, education, alcohol consumption, smoking, psychiatric disorders, self-assessment of driving skills, and substance abuse. The NEO-FFI test scores were compared between cases and controls. We employed Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) to create clusters for each personality trait. Logistic regression was utilized to examine the association between the independent variables and the clusters of personality traits, adjusting for potential confounders such as age, marital status, and education level.

A total of 662 participants, comprising 393 cases and 269 controls, were recruited for the study. The mean score for neuroticism was significantly higher in the case group, while the mean scores for extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were substantially lower. The mean score for openness to experience did not show a significant difference. The Personality Assessment Model (PAM) identified two clusters for all personality traits, labeled as high and low. In the logistic regression model, high levels of neuroticism (aOR: 2.75, 95%CI: 1.69-4.45) and low levels of conscientiousness (aOR: 0.50, 95%CI: 0.30-0.84) were associated with an increased likelihood of being involved in a car accident.

Drivers involved in severe accidents tended to exhibit higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, as measured by the NEO-FFI. Regression analysis revealed that elevated neuroticism and diminished conscientiousness were significantly associated with high-risk driving behaviors. Although assessing personality traits can aid in predicting risky driving, this association is not definitive, and caution should be exercised when generalizing these findings.