Abstract

Background. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation notes the need to review the measures used to reduce the risks of human factor in driving and to implement a preventive strategy.

Objective. The work is aimed at studying the psychological determinants of aggressive behavior of Russian drivers of passenger transportation in the context of their mental states during the COVID-19 period and to clarify the preventive strategy of the Russian Ministry of Labor to reduce the role of the human factor in accidents.

Design. The article presents the materials of an empirical study obtained on a sample of professional drivers of Moscow passenger vehicles. The study involved respondents (men) aged 26 to 59 years with work experience from 8 to 40 years. The method of determining the dominant state (DS-8) by L.V. Kulikov; test for measuring poorly realized manifestations of aggression “Hend-test” by E. Wagner; questionnaire Driving Anger Expression Inventory by J.L. Deffenbacher and R.S. Lynch; questionnaire “Dula Dangerous Driving Index” by C.S. Dula were used:

Results. It was found that the increase in the aggressiveness of drivers is determined by the intensity of their non-equilibrium mental states, primarily tension states, including those caused by restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion. Total social control, along with continuous video tracking of the driver’s behavior while driving, contributes to the manifestation of aggressive behavior. The specific “cumulative publicity effect”, which is caused by the multiplied combination of total social and personal video control in the workplace, contributes to the need to “dump” the cumulative stress on the object, which in any way prevents the realization of an urgent need. Due to the fact that the ability to self-regulate non-equilibrium mental states plays the most important role in the manifestation of aggressive behavior., A proper method to solve the problem is to develop an individual profile of the dynamics of a non-equilibrium mental state for the driver (“driver’s risk passport”) based on neural network information and analytical data of pre-shift testing. Such an individual passport will make it possible to predict risks when driving passenger transport and can become a reliable tool for implementing a preventive strategy to achieve a zero mortality rate in accidents.