ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Injury Prevention and Control
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1626481
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrating Multidisciplinary Approaches to Mitigate Road Traffic Crashes and OutcomesView all 4 articles
Perceived Invulnerability in Traffic: Illusion of Control, Desire for Control, Risk Perception, and Traffic-Locus of Control
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institute of Philosophy and Psychology "Constantin Rădulescu-Motru", Romanian AcademyBuch, Bucharest, Romania
- 2Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Transilvania University of Brașov, Brasov, Romania
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study examined the psychological predictors of risky driving behavior, focusing on traffic-locus of control, illusion of control, desire for control, and risk perception - as key components of perceived invulnerability. Two main hypotheses were tested: the first (H1) included two sub-hypotheses, H1a, that perception of invulnerability predicts risky driving, and H1b, that this relationship is moderated by driving experience; the second hypothesis (H2), was that risk perception mediates the relationship between traffic-locus of control, driving experience, and risky driving behaviors. A sample of 115 drivers completed standardized self-report questionnaires. Results partially supported the first hypothesis: perceived invulnerability, operationalized through illusion of control, desire for control, and risk perception predict risky driving behavior. However, driving experience did not moderate any of the observed relationships. The second hypothesis was also partially confirmed. A two-step mediation model revealed that traffic-locus of control and driving experience predicted risk perception, while the full model explained 47% of the variance in risky behavior. Risk perception partially mediated the relationship between beliefs about other drivers and risky driving. Additionally, beliefs in fate and luck were directly associated with lower risk engagement. Contrary to expectations, driving experience did not moderate any of the key relationships, suggesting that these psychological patterns remain influential regardless of experience level. These findings underscore the complex interplay between control beliefs and perceived risk in driving contexts, offering insights for interventions targeting cognitive distortions and overconfidence that contribute to hazardous driving practices.
Keywords: Risky driving behaviors, illusion of control, desire for control, Traffic risk perception, traffic-locus of control, perceived invulnerability
Received: 10 May 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nae, Truta and Cazan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Camelia Truta, camitruta@unitbv.ro
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.