One of the experts Shaer interviewed was UW-Madison psychologist and specialist on anger Martin Ryan, who attempted to explain what’s going on. Ryan explained that emotions have to go somewhere, and far too often drivers find their outlet in a car.
“If I was to set out to create a situation that would make the most people act badly and angrily, I couldn’t come up with anything better than driving,’ Ryan told the Times. “Every element that provokes an anger response is there. There’s your mood when you entered the car in a rush. There’s provocation — something that happens to you, like being cut off. And relatedly, there’s how you interpret the provocation based on your mood.”