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Personal cars make us partly selfish and also harm the environment. But we are still not going to give them up. Moreover, we experience tender, strong feelings for them, which are akin to love addiction. Why is this happening?
A Moscow motorist spends an average of 127 hours a year in traffic jams.1 – more than a resident of any other European capital. What kind of means of transportation is there – it is obvious that in most cases the metro would be faster. In Russia, the figures, of course, will be different. But so are the roads.
In general, a car is far from always convenient if we need to get from point A to point B. However, this does not stop hundreds of thousands of Russians who simply cannot imagine their life without a car.
freedom tool
“I constantly go to clients at home,” says stylist and hairdresser, 38-year-old Vera. – And how would I drag myself into the subway with huge cases of cosmetics and tools? I’d better leave an hour earlier, but it’s simply unrealistic for me to get there without a car.”
Zhanna, a 43-year-old marketer, gives completely different arguments: “I live in a car. Here no one will step on my foot, no one will stick with idiotic questions. If I have a meeting in the morning, I can jump out of the house without makeup and hungry – I know that I will have time in traffic jams and make up, and drink coffee, and have a snack, and even make a dozen important calls.
In essence, Vera and Jeanne mean the same thing – the car gives them a new degree of autonomy.
“Speaking about the car, we are talking about freedom first of all,” psychologist Elena Stankovskaya is sure. – The machine facilitates movement in space, the choice of direction, the organization of time. And women, probably, feel it more sharply, as not only their physical, but also gender opportunities are expanding.” And although a woman behind the wheel has not surprised anyone for a long time, initially it is still an “invasion” of the primordially male territory.
This consideration alone is enough to explain car dependency. We can give up many pleasant or useful things, but our own freedom is the last thing. Is it because the motorist experiences the loss of a driver’s license as a hard blow, akin to imprisonment or injury?
Personal space
Are there “female” and “male” car addictions? “In fact, the difference is small,” says ethnopsychologist and passionate car enthusiast Toby Nathan. Noting, however, that men appreciate the technical properties of the car and its appearance more, while women often value interior space more.
“Even when I park, I sometimes sit in the car for a few minutes,” confirms Marina, 47, a process engineer. – I have my favorite things there, some of my talismans are placed, hung. This is my refuge.”
And this is a very important recognition. The car serves us as a home outside the home, and therefore, in a sense, a fortress. Well, or at least a cocoon that can protect if something goes wrong. “When we have conflicts with my husband, I get into the car and drive for no reason,” says 33-year-old Larisa, a realtor. “It calms me down.”
Designers are well aware of our perception of the car as a safe personal space. When developing modern cars, almost more time and attention is paid to the interior than to the exterior.
Sequel to “I”
But there are many other reasons why we depend on our iron horses. “I have a Volvo Jeep,” says Svetlana, 46, a petite, fragile woman. “We are “working in contrast” with him: I am small, he is huge.”
And 32-year-old Daria chose just a small car – Mini. Moreover, she decorated the headlights with flirty stickers in the form of curved eyelashes. “Well, because this car is definitely a girl! she says. – And before that I had a RAV4, and of course it was a boy. I make sure to give the machines names and generally humanize them in every possible way. Which, by the way, is completely natural.
Since the car is for many an extension of their own body, then its model, design and power is our way to present ourselves to the world.
Imagine the situation: you bought a car and happily inform a friend about it, and in a few days you will find out that the friend has bought exactly the same one. What is your reaction? It turns out that it strongly depends on education and social environment.2.
“Blue collars”, representatives of the conditional “working class”, for the most part perceived this news positively. And they even regarded the purchase of a friend as confirmation of the correctness of their own choice and strengthening their connection with other people.
But the representatives of the “middle class”, who were inclined to demonstrate their taste and status, more often felt a threat to their identity and uniqueness of preferences in a similar choice.
Dream of control
Toby Nathan believes that from the point of view of our psychology, the appearance of the car is more important than its practical purpose: “Most designers rely on the function – to drive. But they forget about the main thing in the car – there must be a particle of a dream come true in it.
Does this mean that we will abandon cars if automakers, by agreement, undertake to produce only ugly boxes on wheels? Hardly, admits Toby Nathan. After all, driving is much more than turning the steering wheel and shifting the lever.
It is an act of absolute control, and in the fullness of our power over the machine, we become a bit like gods. Not without reason, after all, the very first steam car was called the Obedient, reminds Toby Nathan.
Elena Stankovskaya agrees with this, noting that for women this aspect may play an even greater role than for men: “I can control a ton of metal, from the movement of my hands, albeit not strong ones, this ton comes into motion obeys my will! This feeling of omnipotence is, of course, another reason for our loving dependence on soulless mechanisms.
And some sex
Sensual half-naked beauties appear in car advertising all the time. However, Toby Nathan is sure that this is not the reason, but only a consequence of the fact that, at an unconscious level, machines cause many of us to associate with sex. He considers the cars themselves seductive and even admits that in a dream he happened to confuse a car with a woman several times …
As for the true cause of car addiction, perhaps the Oxford University psychologists Peter Marsh and Peter Collet have come closest to it.
“The pleasure of driving a car is purely sexual in nature,” they assure. – The human body responds to acceleration in space with nerve impulses and muscle contraction. The neck area is especially sensitive to acceleration. In general, these nervous and muscular reactions bring the body into a state of physical excitement.3
The central nervous system then “translates” this bodily response into the language of emotion.
The dominant emotion in some people may be, for example, fear. But many others experience unconditional and distinct pleasure.
“Moreover, these drivers also recognize the presence of fear and maximum composure, concentration,” emphasize Marsh and Collett. “However, they are able to control their emotions, in large part because they control the acceleration itself. The result can be a powerful emotional outburst, which in some cases is quite comparable to an orgasm.
And after that, are you still surprised that we are in no hurry to change to the subway or bicycles?
Why do cars seduce us? Six Relationship Models
Jeeps are indispensable in off-road conditions, small city cars are more convenient to park and scurry in traffic jams, and sports cars are needed to set speed records on race tracks. But that’s not why we buy them. Their erotic appeal lies in the fact that they allow us to fulfill a fantasy, fulfill a childhood dream or embody an image that has come to us from the depths of history. Ethnopsychologist Toby Nathan offers his classification of cars and their owners.
1 The study was conducted by TomTom, Europe’s largest manufacturer of car navigation devices, in 2013.
2 N. Stephens, H. Markus, S. Townsend «Choice as an Act of Meaning: The Case of Social Class», Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2007, vol. 93, № 5.
3 P. Marsh, P. Collett «Driving Passion: The Psychology of the Car» (Jonathan Cape, 1986).