Reaction Time and Automobile Risk Avoidance Aptitude

Paper Summary:

Studies of reaction times have been of interest to a wide variety of people for several centuries. Among one of the industries that stands to benefit the most from a more comprehensive understanding of reaction times is the automobile insurance industry, which charges customers premiums based on the risk that they might get into an accident. There is reason to believe that this propensity is directly correlated to reaction time. This paper shows that, whereas, in simple reaction time experiments, there is only one stimulus and one response, in choice reaction time experiments, the user must give a response that corresponds to the stimulus. This system most closely resembles that of driving. The paper shows that insurers have found that reaction time is determined as the time required for a driver to perceive a hazard and apply the brakes or turn the steering wheel. As a result, reaction time tests used to measure driving competency would have to focus on this particular metric.

From the Paper:

"Other studies have shown that reaction times improve when there is a sense of anticipation in the subject, which bodes poorly for the method's use to the automobile insurance industry. Sanders (1998, p. 21) This has two implications to the industry: first, people with higher reaction times will tend to be better drivers and people who engage in reaction-time intensive activities such as video games will have higher reaction times. Secondly, testing will not reveal skills as well as might have been thought. Brebner and Welford (1980) report that reaction times are faster when the subject has been warned that a stimulus will arrive soon."

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