PSICOLOGÍA DEL CONDUCTOR DE AUTOMOVIL

And

[Music]

and

in 1893 Robert Louis Stevenson

wrote what is considered the first

science fiction novel, The Strange

Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

In it, he narrates the life story of

Dr. Jekyll, a good, educated, and well-mannered man

who accidentally creates a

substance capable of transforming him into a

violent, selfish, and cowardly person.

The two people share the same life,

the same body, the same mind, the same

consciousness. By day he is Dr.

Jekyll, and by night he is Mr. Hyde.

Gradually, Dr. Jekyll

loses control of the effects of

the substance and the

beast's behavior, so that the two people

end up fighting for control of their

personalities.

[Music] Could it be

that the same thing happens to us when

we drive a car?

We are sociable and approachable people

when we are out in public, but we

transform into beasts when we

drive.

This documentary is an expression of

vulgar, colloquial, practical, and

spontaneous psychology because there aren't

many references to this

everyday phenomenon.

The idea of ​​this documentary is that we

We transform into beasts when

we drive, becoming someone else.

This statement stems from the premise that we

constantly, consciously,

and intentionally behave according to

the place and situation we are in. We are

always mindful of the

situation, trying to take advantage of it, projecting

an image to others, and we are careful

not to make mistakes or suffer

losses. We are like Dr. Jekyll:

polite, courteous, formal. We follow a

role or a social pattern—in the office, with

clients, with coworkers,

with family. In some way, we are

pretending,

we are playing a part.

The second premise is that there are places

where we stop taking care of ourselves, stop following that

role, where for a moment we let our guard down

and act

spontaneously and naturally without a plan.

That place is the car.

Consequently, what is suggested is that

when we drive our

cars, we manifest ourselves as we

truly are.

Some factors that facilitate

acting without control in the car are the

anonymity of the car;

unconsciously, you feel protected

by a metal armor;

the distance between one driver and another; there is

no direct physical contact;

interactions with other

drivers are brief, fleeting, and

risk-free;

everyone is the same; everyone in the car is the same.

Cars are all the same, they're just bulky vehicles. There are no

signs to respect hierarchies,

social level, age, or gender.

The streets aren't your home, where you should strive for

civility.

Competition reigns supreme on the streets, it's the law

of the jungle.

We assume morality autonomously; the greater the

disorganization, the greater the abuse. It's

shameful to describe the

negative behavior some people exhibit

when driving.

If there's a line to cross at an intersection,

we cut in front of everyone, we use the

right lane, and we don't feel

guilty, we're not even aware.

On the contrary, we feel proud

of being audacious. We

drive with

implicit or incidental aggression. We act as if we're

driving out of necessity,

following the flow of traffic.

We block an intersection to annoy others,

explaining that the car in front stopped

and wouldn't let us pass. We cover up our

aggression.

We defend our car's space,

our lane, as if we were

competing to not let each other pass,

instead of doing it

prudently. We slow down

if another driver uses their turn signals, we

accelerate to prevent them from

passing,

we complain to others that all

drivers are clumsy, they don't know how to drive,

and if one is more aggressive... We

say that some drivers are abusive;

we use the horn not as a

warning but to annoy or attack.

We try to point out or complain to another

driver who is trying to pass. We

say swear words that we would

n't say in ordinary life. We believe that inside

the car it's as if we're inside

our own minds, that no one can hear what we're

thinking. Some

drivers are particularly harsh on women. If a male driver commits an infraction or makes

a mistake, they don't notice and keep going,

but if it's a woman who uses the horn, they follow her around,

making signs and gestures

out the window.

This different behavior when

we're in the car is so obvious that

when our children are with us,

they're surprised to notice it and

ask us, "Mom, why didn't you let him

pass? Why are you swearing?"

Another piece of evidence is the gestures we

make while driving, the face we make

when we're behind the wheel.

Another theory to explain this

behavior is the one suggested by Walt

Disney in a cartoon where one

of his characters,

Goofy, is a proper, calm, and

polite man, incapable of stepping on a fly, but

once behind the wheel, things change. A

transformation, a feeling of power

that causes him to transform into an

uncontrollable monster.

This second hypothesis can

also be observed in some famous quotes about

the effect of power on men. For

example,

almost all of us can endure

adversity, but if you want to test a

man's character, give him power.

The supreme test of virtue consists in

possessing unlimited power without abusing

it.

If you want to know a man, endow

him with great power.

But not all people drive like that;

not all are aggressive. There are some who

are pleasant.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves if, by

driving aggressively,

we are directing and manifesting our

true selves. And there are people who are

not aggressive or unpleasant when driving. So, are

we aggressive when driving because

we live with dissatisfaction, because we are not

happy?

Driving is a way of living or

coexisting; it is like walking through life. You

drive to a destination in the same

way that you carry out an activity

to achieve a goal in your life. It

is a very common observation to affirm that

happiness is not a state but a

way of doing things. This suggests

that perhaps we should enjoy

driving.

Another comment related to the

previous one is to point out that not We don't enjoy

the present or what we have because we're

always thinking about what we're going

to do in the past or something else

[Music].

Consequently, we don't enjoy life.

This also relates to

driving. We drive to do something else.

Driving is an annoying means to do

something else we want. That's why driving

becomes tedious, something we do out of

necessity, something like a

sacrifice.

Perhaps if we stop thinking of driving

as a means and focus on it as an end, we would stop

expressing ourselves, we would stop

being aggressive.

Fortunately, we're not always going to be

aggressive drivers, nor are all

drivers like that. We can change our

driving behavior, and that's it. It can be

transformed into another pleasant and

controlled area of ​​our lives.

To conclude, we propose turning

driving into an exercise in

psychological therapy.

Some strategies to achieve this

can be: while driving, if you see

a kind driver, follow their example;

observe yourself and challenge yourself to see how much you

can control yourself;

show an example to your children;

refrain from being aggressive, telling yourself

that you're not participating in a

competition of jerks;

drive with joy, with pleasure;

look at the faces of other drivers;

some smile, others have a face of

Instead of listening to stressful music or news,

listen to relaxing background music

or an audio recording with uplifting messages.

Driving is also an exercise in

citizenship and nationalism. Drive

courteously because you love Mexico, and by

driving courteously you express that the

way you drive is the way

you learned to drive in Mexico.

[Music]

There are two types of driving: the

spontaneous and aggressive style of the majority, and the

courteous and tolerant style of a few.

Some of these achieved this when

they learned to drive, generally

through their families, and some of them

learned on their own by

observing their own driving mistakes.

I think anyone

interested in the ideas of this documentary

belongs to this latter small but

remarkable group of people who can

learn to be better people on their own.

[Music]