Adopting an interdependent approach to driving necessitates asking, how does my action (or lack thereof) affect others. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
By Hannah Waldfogel
This article was produced in partnership with Behavioral Scientist.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
– George Carlin
New Jersey has endless claims to fame. It was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights. Per square mile, it has more diners, horses, and people than any other state. It’s home to the world’s longest boardwalk, largest water tower, and is the birthplace of America’s sweetheart, Danny DeVito.
New Jersey also has the most traffic congestion of any state, some of the worst roads, and is the most dangerous place for pedestrians.
Nearly 30 percent of all fatal accidents in NJ in 2024 involved pedestrians, compared to the national average of 17.3 percent. Some of these accidents have made international headlines. On August 29, 2024, Johnny Gaudreau — a 31-year-old professional hockey player — and his brother Matthew were biking on the shoulder of a road in Salem County when a Jeep crashed into them, killing them both.
In 2024, 692 people died on New Jersey roads, including 360 drivers, 84 passengers, 223 pedestrians, and 25 bikers. How can we make New Jersey roads safer in 2025?
In early January, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill establishing the New Jersey Target Zero Commission, whose aim is to eliminate fatal traffic accidents. Some safety recommendations address situational driving factors, focusing on redesigning streets, reducing speed limits, widening shoulders, and ensuring better enforcement of traffic laws.
Other recommendations confront the reality that cars are killing machines, urging manufacturers to lower hood heights and equip vehicles with automatic emergency braking and blind spot warning systems. A third set of recommendations target drivers themselves, promoting education and providing information to encourage safer driving.
I am a New Jersey driver attempting to safely navigate the Garden State’s various jughandles, roundabouts, and densely packed roads while avoiding deer, foxes, and pedestrians. I am also a psychologist studying how people make sense of the world. Better street design, safer cars, and driver education programs offer promising paths to safer roads, but their success still depends on something more fundamental — the decisions we make behind the wheel.
Those decisions — to signal or not, follow at a safe distance or tailgate, allow someone to merge or block them off — are shaped by how we think about ourselves and those around us. How we interpret our own and others’ driving behavior determines whether driving is rife with cooperation or conflict, safety or danger.
By better understanding the psychological factors influencing how we see ourselves and others while driving, we can develop solutions that facilitate safe and cooperative behavior behind the wheel. And these changes can happen right now, while the work on legislation, new manufacturing standards, and updated driver’s ed curricula is underway.
Our behavior is in large part shaped by how we interpret the situations we find ourselves in. There are many ways to interpret the world, and two people can understand the same situation in entirely different ways. Whether the person in front of you just cut you off or is simply trying to navigate rush hour traffic depends on how you interpret the situation.
Two ways we might interpret the world are through an independent lens — meaning we view our behavior as self-focused actions arising from our own personal interests and goals — or through an interdependent lens. The latter involves being aware of and attuned to the people around us, adjusting and responding to the needs of others, and contributing to collective goals.
When we think about our driving behavior through an independent lens, we’re essentially asking, how does this affect me? Adopting an interdependent approach to driving necessitates asking, how does my action (or lack thereof) affect others. When viewed through an interdependent lens, the choices we make while driving — to use turn signals, to honk, to tailgate, to yield to emergency vehicles, to speed through a school zone, to get behind the wheel after a few drinks — look very different.
Psychology research suggests that when we understand our behavior in interdependent terms, we’re more motivated to help those around us. For instance, in my own research with colleagues, we examine what it means to view political behavior through an interdependent lens. In particular, we explore how people make sense of the duty to vote — as an independent duty to the self (i.e., a duty to make one’s voice heard and exercise individual rights) or as an interdependent duty to others (i.e., a duty to help community, protect loved ones, and contribute to collective change). We find that when people see voting through an interdependent lens, they feel more of an obligation to vote and express more interest in voting.
But seeing driving as interdependent can be challenging, in part, because we tend to seek out information consistent with our prior beliefs — something psychologists call confirmation bias. If we believe other drivers are out to get us, we’ll interpret their actions in ways that reinforce that belief. If we assume that people are trying their best (even if they may sometimes drive like idiots or maniacs), it’s easier to spot the good in others.
By making an effort and expecting that others are making an effort, we might create a self-fulfilling prophecy — where our belief in good intentions on the road leads us to act in ways that encourage cooperation. Put differently, believing driving is a team sport can help make it one.
There are already plenty of instances when New Jersey drivers have adopted an interdependent mindset while on the road. Take Juan Perez, who lost his brother in a car accident. In 2019, when he encountered a vehicle on fire in Egg Harbor Township, he rescued the two people inside without hesitation. Or, Christine Torres of Piscataway who, while driving on 287 South in January 2024, encountered an overturned pickup truck and pulled the injured driver to safety. And then there are the countless instances that didn’t make headlines, when New Jersey drivers helped each other change a flat, offered a tow, or simply showed grace and understanding on our busy roads.
George Carlin isn’t wrong: people driving slower or faster than us may very well be idiots and maniacs. But this year, how might we ensure that all New Jerseyans — idiots and maniacs included — make it to our destinations safely?
Hannah Waldfogel is a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy at Princeton University. She earned her PhD in management and organizations from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.