The holidays are almost over. We’re back from various road trips, preparing for what the year brings, reflecting, planning and hoping for better times.
Coincidentally, AA Insurance has just published its latest motoring survey. This found that 82% of us admit to being a back seat driver, with almost half saying they do it regularly. A third of motorists feel that having an over-zealous back seat driver negatively affected their driving.
So, how’s it been for you this summer and what’s the big deal anyway?
The term ‘back seat driver’ is a disparaging name meaning, ‘a passenger who continually gives unwanted and/or unneeded advice to the driver’ or, in a more general sense, ‘someone who gives unwanted advice or tries to control something that is supposed to be controlled by another person’.
In a driving sense there is some psychology behind the phenomenon with various professionals commenting that: ‘it’s saying, I don’t trust you to handle this on your own’ or, ‘it’s combating their own feeling of powerlessness in the realisation they cannot fix the situation if the driver makes a mistake’ or, ‘the back seat driver is an individual who has a strong need to feel influence and they are always looking for ways to express that need’.