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How do drivers react to partisan bumper stickers?

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2025.1617785
24•PaulHoule•4mo ago

Comments

andy99•4mo ago
I'm not entirely sold on the methodological soundness. It seems like they went into it looking to confirm something, and designed and experiment that probably would. Maybe it's more rigorous than I got from reading the first part of the article, it doesn't come across that way.

I do think the conclusion makes sense, I'm just not sure about how well this demonstrates it.

PaulHoule•4mo ago
Let's see... You could make people try a VR driving simulator and make them face various provocations and see how they react... You could put a car out on the road which is driven badly and try putting different bumper stickers on to see how people respond. If it wound up in a crash it would be like mashing up both of Zimbardo's experiments that you could never do today. [1] [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

[2] https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/policings-hidden-curri...

delichon•4mo ago
Now we have whole partisan cars.
compiler-devel•4mo ago
Which cars are wholly partisan?
onionisafruit•4mo ago
Citroën has some parisian cars
jghn•4mo ago
Cybertruck
anamax•4mo ago
From the article: "Finally, we also vary the demographics of the driver of this other car to determine if this effect is even stronger if the viewer is white, and the driver of the car with the sticker is Black."

I wonder why they didn't do the flip-side demographic experiment.

PaulHoule•4mo ago
According to one study, women and southerners are more likely to have bumper stickers

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2017/06/14/southerners-women-...

anamax•4mo ago
Gender combinations would have also been interesting.
next_xibalba•4mo ago
I, for one, am immediately convinced by all partisan bumper stickers I see.
gerdesj•4mo ago
Do people react in real life in the same way that they do in a simulation? I will suggest no, they don't. I think that a simulation is great for training but crap for experimentation.

With a simulation you can help prepare someone to be able to react within a "situation". It does not follow that you can simulate a "situation" and extrapolate that a person will react and behave as they would in real life.

This experiment only involves simulated dashcam footage as the "experience". It does not include the visceral feeling of actually being in a car. I personally know that my mental processes whilst driving are not the same as when I am, say, walking a street. For example when in car mode I "know" that German marque cars often have ineffective indicators. I could go on at length and no doubt my own driving style pisses off someone. That is the way of the road and for some reason, touch wood, I've managed to keep safe for 30 odd years driving. The way of the road is not controlled for in the simulation described.

You might as well remove the driving "simulation" and simply ask people what they think of the partisan stickers - I suspect you'll get the same results.

gus_massa•4mo ago
Calling it a simulation is too much, it's just a video and a cuestionare. I'd expect at least a simulation in a arcase video racing game.
sublinear•4mo ago
I gotta be honest I haven't really seen political bumper stickers since around the early 2000s. It's now maybe a couple of times a year out of the 10k+ cars I see in all that time?

I think social media became the outlet for all that stuff and the damage to the paint hurts the resale value of the car. If I ever see any stickers otherwise it's on the glass and still not political.

I think everyone kinda just admitted to themselves that they're trashy and pointless.

whobre•4mo ago
The best bumper sticker I’ve seen:

“My feelings about stuff here”

Simulacra•4mo ago
I think we've seen enough vehicles and homes damaged because of political signs that there is some evidence that people react badly. I don't agree with this at all, but I don't think there's anything we can do about it.
thunky•4mo ago
> but I don't think there's anything we can do about it.

Just don't post political signs:

- If someone agrees with your sign, you gain nothing. Nobody ever changed their vote because of a bumper sticker.

- If someone disagrees, you've marginalized yourself and potentially made yourself a target, or at least painted yourself in a bad light.

petercooper•4mo ago
I'm not a fan of political signs, but I do think they play a role with unaligned voters. If someone sees frequent signs for a candidate/party they're considering but were unsure about (e.g. a new or controversial candidate/party that might be considered unlikely to win), they might feel validated in that choice through social proof.

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