Rubbernecking: Why You Can’t Turn Away

That tendency to slow down and stare at accidents has a name and it’s a contributor to a meaningful number of additional crashes.

If you’ve ever driven past the scene of a car accident, you’ve probably done it.

Diverting your attention from the road to catch a glimpse—or a short gaze—of the wreck you’re passing is a natural tendency rooted in basic human psychology. It can also cause distracted driving, traffic congestion and additional accidents, say road officials.

“Driving demands 100% of your attention,” said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Todd Bingham.

The practice, known as “rubbernecking,” a reference to the neck-craning action, is part of how we as humans perceive and interpret disasters and respond to threats, according to psychology experts.

“An accident is a potentially threatening stimulus to a driver trying to understand what's happened on the roadway that could affect their safety,” said Paul Atchley, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at South Florida University who has been studying distracted driving for more than two decades. “Responding to an event is actually something that an attentive driver must do on an ongoing basis.”

But while our motivation for looking might start with our survival, rubbernecking can end in a far different result and may contribute to a notable share of crashes. According to a 2001 study by the Crash Investigation Team of the Transportation Safety Training Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, rubbernecking contributes to as many as 16% of all accidents. More recent data is limited.

So how exactly does a natural concern for safety turn into a dangerous form of distracted driving? The answer lies in the way our brains’ attention and threat-detection systems work.

What Happens to Our Brains When We Rubberneck

Our vigilance might come naturally, but it isn’t entirely accurate to say it’s human nature.

That’s because our perception and information processing are evolutionarily older systems common among many species, according to Crystal Reeck, Ph.D., a professor of marketing at Temple University whose research focuses on decision making and emotional regulation.

“It’s one of the most conserved tendencies across species, but people in particular tend to really have their attention drawn and captured by negative events,” she said. “A lot of brain regions that have been around for a long time direct our attention rapidly, sometimes even within the blink of an eye, to prioritize this information.”

For instance, the thalamus quickly passes along sensory information to other areas, like the amygdala, which helps detect danger and can trigger a fight-or-flight response. Meanwhile, the frontal cortex can step in to make sense of the situation and adjust our reactions.

When we see distressing events, such as an accident, the brain seeks more information to better determine a possible threat. This is when our curiosity can get the best of us, and rubbernecking can occur.

“Seeing the lights from police cars and the other things indicating there’s been an accident tells a driver there may be threat,” Atchley said. “Your brain’s going to want to pay attention to that—and maybe look longer at it than you should.”

The consequences of this lingering stare are potentially disruptive and dangerous. Drivers can fail to maintain proper distances with other cars, which can lead to rear-end crashes and slow traffic.

“Unfortunately, it does happen when an emergency worker is hit responding to an accident,” Bingham said. “You’ll also see it happen when there is an accident or there is a sudden slowdown in the opposite lanes.”

Distractions like rubbernecking can reduce our response times by impairing our attention and visual processing abilities. Even those who think they can effectively split their attention on the road are likely driving worse. According to the American Psychological Association, multitasking negatively affects our productivity, cuts efficiency and raises risks due to the “costs” associated with switching between tasks.

“We know that people do really badly in divided attention settings,” Reeck said. “If you're attending to two things at the same time, you're not as accurate, not as precise. And with driving, the stakes are incredibly high, and response times might have to be incredibly fast.”

What Can We Do About It?

Whether it’s rubbernecking, phone use or daydreaming, there’s no shortage of disruptions on the road.

Considering what we know about how the brain and our attention systems work, are there brain hacks that can help us avoid succumbing to distracted driving?

According to Reeck, prioritizing what’s called our “top-down attention" can be helpful in keeping our mind focused on the road.

When our attention is top-down, we’re focused on a set of goals and expectations that direct our concentration. Think of looking through text for a specific word. By contrast, bottom-up attention occurs when something external, such as a flashing light, captures our attention.

“One of the things my own research has shown is that when you've got this top-down attention and you're really focused and really goal-driven in shaping where your attention goes, you can actually block out this bottom-up influence,” she said. “People can think of this as letting their goal be the driver of their attention. In this instance, your goal is to drive home safely, which can shape how you direct your attention.”

When approaching an accident on the side of the road, Bingham said drivers should move over, or slow down if a lane change isn’t possible. “Move Over” laws in all 50 states require this when an emergency or service vehicle is present.

He added that a dose of empathy can also be helpful to avoid distractions.

“Put yourself in the position of the person who has been in the accident or is responding to it and understand what they need to be safe,” he said.

Solving Distracted Driving

Though rubbernecking represents just one form of distracted driving, it helps highlight the broader problem.

Things that hijack our attention can shorten our reaction times and impair our decision-making. Research published by Atchley in Human Factors found that simply engaging in a conversation can make us take three to four times longer to recognize what’s in front of us.

These distractions lead to tragedy at a dramatic scale. According to the CDC, about 3,000 people are killed each year in an accident involving a distracted driver.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has designated every April since 2010 as Distracted Driving Awareness Month. ERIE shares this same commitment by encouraging drivers to stay vigilant and avoid distractions on the road.

One ERIE program, YourTurn®, promotes safer driving by tracking driver behaviors and rewarding your good habits. YourTurn is a smartphone program that tracks key aspects of your driving and gives you feedback after each trip. The safer and smoother you drive, the higher your score—and the more rewards you can cash in for gift cards.

Safer roads begin with each of us, and ERIE is by your side for every mile.

To learn more about or enroll in YourTurn, reach out to a local ERIE agent. They can also help provide options so you stay better protected on the road—that’s our main focus.