Driving performance during concurrent cell-phone use: are drivers aware of their performance decrements?
Lesch MF, Hancock PA. · 2004
View Original AbstractDrivers using cell phones often don't realize their performance is impaired, with older women showing the largest disconnect between confidence and actual ability.
Plain English Summary
Researchers tested whether drivers using cell phones are aware of how much their driving performance suffers. They found that while confident male drivers performed better, confident female drivers (especially older women) actually performed worse, with brake response times slowing by 0.38 seconds compared to just 0.07-0.10 seconds for other groups. This suggests many drivers, particularly women, don't realize how much cell phone use impairs their driving ability.
Why This Matters
This research reveals a dangerous blind spot in how we perceive cell phone risks while driving. The science demonstrates that confidence doesn't equal competence when it comes to managing device distractions, particularly for female drivers who showed the greatest disconnect between perceived and actual performance. What makes this especially concerning is that older women experienced brake response delays nearly four times longer than other groups, yet rated the driving task as less demanding than men did. This mirrors what we see throughout EMF research - people often don't perceive the biological effects occurring in their bodies. The reality is that our brains aren't wired to recognize subtle performance decrements from electromagnetic exposures, whether from driving with a phone or chronic low-level EMF exposure in daily life.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
This current study examined the extent to which different driver groups are aware of their associated performance decrements.
Subjects' confidence in dealing with distractors while driving and their ratings of task performance...
While high confidence ratings appeared to be predictive of better driving performance for male drive...
Show BibTeX
@article{mf_2004_driving_performance_during_concurrent_2350,
author = {Lesch MF and Hancock PA.},
title = {Driving performance during concurrent cell-phone use: are drivers aware of their performance decrements?},
year = {2004},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15003592/},
}