South Africans are known for their love of loud cars. They are so enamoured with exhaust notes they have even nicknamed any car that makes a loud noise as a Vrrr-Pha!
According to a recent study from the Western University of Ontario, Canada, if you love your exhaust noise loud and obnoxious it could mean you aren't a lovable personality.
The online research polled 529 individuals — 289 males and 234 females — between the ages of 16 and 37. The aim was to view attitudes towards loud vehicles, asking if they viewed their car as an extension of themselves, how much they thought loud cars were “cool”, and if they would make their car louder with exhaust modifications.
As exhaust system modifications are typically illegal in many countries, the analysis adds to the understanding of the dark personality variables as well as what individual difference variables may predict who engages in these behaviours. The survey was designed to identify dark tetrads such as narcissism, psychopathy and sadism.
Three questions were created for the purpose of the study to assess an individual’s view towards vehicles, and specifically, loud cars with modified exhaust systems. The items were: “My car is an extension of what makes me a person”, “I think loud cars are really cool”, and “If I could, I would make my car louder with muffler modification”. Items were responded to using the options strongly disagree, somewhat disagree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat agree, or strongly agree.
According to the poll results, those who enjoy loud vehicle exhausts had a propensity to be male (no surprises there), with high scores for personality traits associated with sadism and psychopathy.
Psychopathy is associated with a person or action that shows no concern for other people or their feelings, while sadism is the enjoyment of watching others being harmed or inflicting pain and suffering on others.
Furthermore, the study focused on cars exclusively. Motorcycles and trucks were not factored in and thus the correlations with sadism and psychopathy may have been even greater as other studies have shown that larger vehicles inspire more aggression.
Whether the study is correct or not, South Africans will no doubt continue loving their loud cars, motorcycles, music and yes of course, the Vuvuzela!
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