October 9, 2025 • 4 mins
Effectively, in a polarized America, where partisan divides fuel everything from family feuds to social snubs, bumper stickers aren’t going to sway anyone to your position, however they may result in more hostility being directed towards you.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
The news you need to start your day, and the
bomb beaches at the Treasure Ghost. This is the Brian
mutjo here's one for you.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Do bumper stickers contribute to road rage?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
What do you think? Yes, yeah, you do to an extent,
not for me so extent.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Imagine your cruise on a ninety five years kind of
like doing your own thing. You got somebody like an
orange sedan base horror radically in front of you. They
cut you off, force you to slay them on the brakes.
Seems very real. Joel was thinking that maybe this was
like a specific situation.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, it's just the orange. There are orange vehicles, which
you don't see them too often, so it's just an
odd color for you to Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
That's why I went with it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's not actually I'm not channeling something specific here. So anyway,
what happens to that moment you get cut off, somebody's
driving like a jerk, You get upset.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's kind of the now you at first it might
be scared, you're.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But it's an emotional thing, right, so you're already kind
of like in the what the heck? Thing that triggers emotions,
gets your pulse raising, and then you look at the
bumper sticker. You see a bumper sticker that says something
like proud Democrat, or it could be proud Republican.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Hands off.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
My body sees something like that, something that clashes with
your own political preferences. And then what happens in that moment?
Do you react differently, Joel? When you have somebody's driving
like a jerk and then you see a sticker that
(02:01):
you don't like.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Well, if I see like a Biden Harris sticker, which
there are some still on the road, I do get
a reaction. And it is typically not only are you
a horrible driver, but you're also dumb.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Okay, so there you go. There you go by the
way that makes you normal. It also makes you correct,
but it makes you So here's the deal. There's a
study recently conducted entitled how do drivers react to partisan
bumper stickers? Understanding Polarization and a political settings? And what
(02:35):
they did is they took nine hundred participants and they
plunged them into driving scenarios and they went through all
types of different circumstances, including providing bumper stickers that were neutral.
They had things like I love my dog and just
whatever else that nobody in theory would find objectionable. And
(02:57):
then they layered in other elements like identifying individuals by race,
by age, by sex, and the big thing, the political stickers.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
They added those into the mix.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Now, interestingly, there wasn't any kind of difference in the
driving behavior of the participants when the messages were I'm
sorry when the other vehicles driving fine, But the moment
they ended up driving like jackwagons. The driving behavior when
(03:38):
there was a message they didn't agree with. Their behavior
was twenty percent more aggressive than it would have been
on average, And so makes sense, does actually, and nothing
gained a bigger response than politics, the political bumper stickers.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's annoying already to see a crappy driver, and then
to know that there is it's two just makes it worse.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So bumper stickers do contribute to road rage.
The news you need to start your day, and the
bomb beaches at the Treasure Ghost. This is the Brian
mutjo here's one for you.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Do bumper stickers contribute to road rage?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
What do you think? Yes, yeah, you do to an extent,
not for me so extent.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Imagine your cruise on a ninety five years kind of
like doing your own thing. You got somebody like an
orange sedan base horror radically in front of you. They
cut you off, force you to slay them on the brakes.
Seems very real. Joel was thinking that maybe this was
like a specific situation.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, it's just the orange. There are orange vehicles, which
you don't see them too often, so it's just an
odd color for you to Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
That's why I went with it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's not actually I'm not channeling something specific here. So anyway,
what happens to that moment you get cut off, somebody's
driving like a jerk, You get upset.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's kind of the now you at first it might
be scared, you're.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But it's an emotional thing, right, so you're already kind
of like in the what the heck? Thing that triggers emotions,
gets your pulse raising, and then you look at the
bumper sticker. You see a bumper sticker that says something
like proud Democrat, or it could be proud Republican.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Hands off.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
My body sees something like that, something that clashes with
your own political preferences. And then what happens in that moment?
Do you react differently, Joel? When you have somebody's driving
like a jerk and then you see a sticker that
(02:01):
you don't like.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Well, if I see like a Biden Harris sticker, which
there are some still on the road, I do get
a reaction. And it is typically not only are you
a horrible driver, but you're also dumb.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Okay, so there you go. There you go by the
way that makes you normal. It also makes you correct,
but it makes you So here's the deal. There's a
study recently conducted entitled how do drivers react to partisan
bumper stickers? Understanding Polarization and a political settings? And what
(02:35):
they did is they took nine hundred participants and they
plunged them into driving scenarios and they went through all
types of different circumstances, including providing bumper stickers that were neutral.
They had things like I love my dog and just
whatever else that nobody in theory would find objectionable. And
(02:57):
then they layered in other elements like identifying individuals by race,
by age, by sex, and the big thing, the political stickers.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
They added those into the mix.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Now, interestingly, there wasn't any kind of difference in the
driving behavior of the participants when the messages were I'm
sorry when the other vehicles driving fine, But the moment
they ended up driving like jackwagons. The driving behavior when
(03:38):
there was a message they didn't agree with. Their behavior
was twenty percent more aggressive than it would have been
on average, And so makes sense, does actually, and nothing
gained a bigger response than politics, the political bumper stickers.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's annoying already to see a crappy driver, and then
to know that there is it's two just makes it worse.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So bumper stickers do contribute to road rage.
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