Mind the beep - the UK’s most stressful car horns

According to new findings released today, the Fiat Punto's car horn has the beep that causes most stress to motorists

11 February 2010

Posted in Product

In a unique experiment, the Fiat Punto's horn had the most profound effect on people's heart rate, skin conductance and brain activity - key stress indicators.

The findings of the experiment kicks off a wider ‘Respect on the Road’ campaign that will highlight the effect of disrespectful driving behaviours and encourage greater courtesy on British roads. The majority of drivers (79%) feel there is a lack of respect on the roads today and nearly half (48%) view a horn honked in anger as the 2^nd most disrespectful thing another driver could do to them. Travel writer Charley Boorman has been brought on board as the campaign's ambassador and to urge people to air their views on the state of behaviour on today's roads.

For the stress experiment, neuroscience specialists Mindlab connected participants to bio-metric monitoring equipment and recorded signals from their brains to show demands made on memory and to determine the relative distraction of horns on the top 20 best-selling cars. Following close behind the Fiat Punto on the stressful car horn scale was the Vauxhall Astra in second place and the Nissan Extra in third.

The Top 10 most stressful car horns:

	Car manufacturer	Mental stress
1.	Fiat Punto	0.8
2.	Vauxhall Astra	0.6
3.	Nissan Extra	0.44
4.	Ford Focus	0.37
5.	Seat Ibiza	0.36
6.	BMW 320	0.35
7.	Ford Fiesta	0.35
8.	Ford Galaxy	0.32
9.	Peugeot 307	0.32
10.	SAAB 93	0.31

Supporting research of 2,000 UK adults has found that almost half (41%) of drivers feel stressed when others use their horn and a further 54% think people use their car horns inappropriately. The majority (59%) think this is because other drivers are too impatient and nearly half (48%) think it is due to a lack of respect. 43% of drivers say they have been a victim of road rage - the most common of these being a honk of the horn or hand gesture - and half of drivers have admitted to using their car horn in an aggressive manner while driving.

There is also a lack of knowledge about when the car horn should be used on British roads. More than two thirds (69%) of people do not know it is illegal to use the horn when the car is stationary, and almost a third (31%) wrongly thought they could use their horn in built up areas during certain hours of the night.

I've driven on roads all over the world and have seen some of the best and worst driving you can imagine. In Britain we may be known for politeness but one thing that drives me mad, is inconsiderate motorists using their horn whenever they feel like it. As the AXA campaign is trying to show; the horn is there for one reason - safety - not to make people's commutes more stressful than they need to be.

Charley Boorman, Experienced driver

We hope this study will highlight the stress car horns can bring, and make people think twice about using their car horn aggressively. Pressing horns out of frustration is just one of the ways people show a lack of respect on the road. By highlighting the discourteous way in which people act when driving, our ongoing campaign aims to bring respect back onto the roads and improve driving experience. We're asking them to think about why they behave that way in their car, when they wouldn't act like that on foot.

Tina Shortle, Marketing Director at AXA Insurance

In a bid to encourage respect on the road, AXA is asking people to vote for their favourite out of five ‘least stressful’ car horn sounds. And to make sure they use their car horns in the most respectful and law-abiding way when out on the road.

Least stressful car horns:

	Car manufacturer	Mental stress
1.	Vauxhall Zafira	0.09
2.	Mazda RX8	0.12
3.	Renault Megane	0.14
4.	Skoda Octavia	0.21
5.	Mini Cooper	0.21

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About AXA UK

AXA Insurance UK plc registered in England and Wales under registered number 078950 and authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority under Financial Conduct Authority registration number 202312. Registered office is 20 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0BG.

AXA UK is part of the AXA Group, a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 147,000 employees serving 94 million clients in 50 countries. In 2023, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 102.7 billion and underlying earnings to Euro 7.6 billion. AXA had Euro 844 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023.

In the UK & Ireland, AXA operates through a number of business units including: AXA Insurance, AXA Health and AXA Ireland. AXA UK & Ireland employs around 10,000 staff.

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