Study: Negative People More Likely To Be Involved In Car Accidents

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – If you have a negative outlook on life, you're more likely to be involved in a car accident according to a new study.

The study was done by the Chinese Academy of Science Institute of Psychology and is published in the journal Plos One.

38-drivers with at least three years' driving experience were studied.

The drivers were split into two groups based on the number of penalty points on their driving records.

15 of those drivers were labeled "dangerous" based on their driving records, and 23 were labeled safe.

Participants were asked to identify photographs that incited negative, positive, or neutral emotions in the participants, the borders of the photographs had a red or blue border.

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The study revealed drivers in the "dangerous" class took longer to identify the color of the border when shown a negative image. According to researchers that indicates a negativity bias.

The same negativity bias was not shown in drivers in the "safe" class.

This isn't the first study that has found the same results.

The Independent says other studies have shown that those who have a glass-half-empty outlook also tend to respond to negative stimuli at a slower pace, compared to those with a positive mentality.