AUTONEWS

Study reveals that lovers of very noisy vehicles may have signs of psychopathy and sadism

Few people have ever been surprised by particularly noisy vehicles, driven by individuals whose pleasure lies more in the roar of the engine and the consequent "rattles" of the exhaust, than in the speed, speed or exemplary behavior of the vehicle. And these types of car lovers are not exactly super sports car owners, but rather tuning fans, who seem to take some pleasure in disturbing their neighbors with the shrill noise of their engines. Well, a Canadian university published a study that associates this pleasure in abnormally noisy cars with psychopathic tendencies.

Julie Aitken Schermer is a professor of Psychology, Management and Organizational Studies at Western University in Ontario. She was walking her dog when she was also bothered by local tuning “artists”, which led her to think that it would take a very special person to feel pleasure in that type of activity. Therefore, carrying out a study with students from the university's Management course was an instant, trying to understand the reasons why only some people like noisy cars, while others abhor this practice that increases the roar of the exhaust pipe.

529 students participated in the study, of which 289 were men, 234 women and six identified themselves as “other”. The questions covered topics such as whether they “viewed their cars as an extension of themselves”, whether they “thought very noisy cars were cool” and whether they “thought about altering the exhausts of their cars to increase the noise”, with Professor Schermer crossing these answers with the results of a study called Short Dark Tetrad (SD4), which aims to detect malicious personality traits, including narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellian instincts.

From the results of both surveys of more than half a thousand individuals, conclusions were drawn such as the existence of “a strong correlation between individuals who like to stand out through the noise of their exhaust and narcissism”. As if this were not enough, it was also clear that it was “among those most passionate about the violent exhaust noises that there were more individuals with signs of psychopathy and sadism”, as Professor Schermer told CBC.

The study was met with a certain amount of criticism from lovers of transformed cars who “scream” above what is permitted by law and who love their four-wheel “bombs” so much that they even have them tattooed on their bodies. Potentially, the members of this sample contribute to the numbers complained of by the authorities in London, interestingly the Canadian city in which the college is located, which confirm an increasing number of fines and vehicle seizures since 2020, in the order of several hundred per year.

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