The Dark Tetrad and Loud Cars
Yes, men who modify cars to be annoying and illegally loud are in fact psychopathic sadists.
Julie Aitken Schermer, a psychology researcher in Ontario, looked into the personality profiles of students to figure out who likes loud vehicles:
A sample of 529 (52% men) undergraduate business students were surveyed and were asked 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 muffler modifications. Cronbach's alpha [a reliability coefficient and a measure of the internal consistency of tests and measures] of the three car items was .76; therefore an aggregate was generated. Also a self-report measure of the dark tetrad [narcissism , machiavellianism , psychopathy , sadism] was completed.
Using linear regression, the car aggregate was predicted by being a man and having higher scores on psychopathy and sadism, with the model accounting for approximately 29% of the variance.
Her conclusions:
“In the context of loud cars, it can understandable how both sadism and psychopathy were both significant predictor variables. Modifying a muffler to make a car louder is disturbing to pedestrians, other drivers, and animals at a distance, meeting the sadism component, as well as startling when up close at intersections, meeting the psychopathy component.’
“Other than legally enforcing laws with respect to these automobile modifications, the present results suggest that other tactics, such as information campaigns, may not be useful as it is unlikely that those scoring higher on psychopathy and sadism would be swayed by the fact that the modified mufflers may be damaging to others, as researchers have recently reported that the dark personality dimensions are negatively correlated with altruism measures.”
“If both larger and louder car items had been included, the correlations with sadism and psychopathy may have been even greater.”
In a nutshell, they are worse than assholes, they are sadistic psychopaths, and they can’t be reasoned with.