**2. Optimism and pessimism in road safety**

In the study of the human factor and road safety, a key component are the driver's own personality traits. Like Hampson [10], we consider personality processes to analyze how personality manifests itself in the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of people to give rise to consequent results. Different investigations have focused on personality traits, such as optimism and pessimism [4]. From the theory of the self-regulation of behavior proposed by Scheier and Carver [11], it is contemplated that optimistic people are the ones who believe they can achieve a desirable outcome, and strive to do so. Pessimists, on the other hand, consider that the outcomes are unattainable, and either give up or do not commit to the actions that would lead

**79**

*Cognitive Profile of Optimistic Offender Drivers Affected by Psychological Interventions…*

to the desired outcome. The self-regulation process is activated when the person compares their current state with the desired one, where the resulting behavior is the reflection of the feedback control [12]. This process involves continuous adjustments and corrections to achieve the established objective. Even when the person pursues multiple objectives simultaneously, it helps them focus their attention and efforts on those priority objectives, and reduce their participation in those that are

Obviously, both groups differ in how they process information from the environment and in how they maintain their expectations for the future, since they construct future scenarios in a different way [15]. Sharot et al. [16] have found that people tend to maintain an optimistic bias, even though the evidence is showing them contrary information. This effect is due to the fact that people update their beliefs more in response to positive information about the future than to negative information. Sometimes optimistic people will carry out extremely risky projects, where the chances of success are minimal and have many factors against them; as long as they believe that in their case they can achieve what they want. Furthermore, they are convinced of it, because when optimists imagine possible scenarios, they focus on the short-term consequences because when optimists imagine the possible scenarios, they do so in greater detail and see it closer in time. In contrast to negative scenarios, where apart from being more unspecific in the

In traffic psychology, optimistic biases and belief in the illusion of control may be two determining variables to explain risk factors in driving [18–20]. Therefore, it is necessary to approach the concept of perceived controllability and the perception

In road safety, it is the driver's own behavior, more or less voluntary, that causes traffic accidents in most cases [21]. The role of perceived controllability is decisive, since drivers, on the one hand, frequently underestimate the probability that they may experience negative events; and on the other hand, they tend to overestimate that they experience positive events, especially when they believe they have sufficient personal resources to face situations or challenges [22]. A theoretical model focused on the field of driving, such as the Task–Capability Interface (TCI) model [23], analyzes the relationships established between the driving task and the capability of the driver. The model indicates that both elements interact to determine task difficulty and the outcome for the driver in terms of whether control is maintained or lost. Azjen [24] specifically insisted in the driver's control beliefs. So, he contemplates that, "Perceived control is determined by control belief concerning the presence or absence of facilitators and barriers to behavioral performance, weighted by their perceived power (impact of each control factor to facilitate or

This control belief is what can have a direct relationship with the intention of the driver. In this regard, Montaño and Kasprzyk, [25] give a determining role to perceived control in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), which assumes that the best predictor of action is intention. When a person has the intention of taking an action, and believes that they control the process to carry it out, the chances of that intention turning into action are very high. Furthermore, Like Harris [26], we think that perceived controllability is a powerful and robust psychological variable that can help predict behavior, as it

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96249*

details, they distance them in time [15, 17].

of risk in drivers, as described below.

**3. Perceived controllability**

inhibit the behavior)".

reflects the intentions of the driver.

not yet a priority [13, 14].

#### *Cognitive Profile of Optimistic Offender Drivers Affected by Psychological Interventions… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96249*

to the desired outcome. The self-regulation process is activated when the person compares their current state with the desired one, where the resulting behavior is the reflection of the feedback control [12]. This process involves continuous adjustments and corrections to achieve the established objective. Even when the person pursues multiple objectives simultaneously, it helps them focus their attention and efforts on those priority objectives, and reduce their participation in those that are not yet a priority [13, 14].

Obviously, both groups differ in how they process information from the environment and in how they maintain their expectations for the future, since they construct future scenarios in a different way [15]. Sharot et al. [16] have found that people tend to maintain an optimistic bias, even though the evidence is showing them contrary information. This effect is due to the fact that people update their beliefs more in response to positive information about the future than to negative information. Sometimes optimistic people will carry out extremely risky projects, where the chances of success are minimal and have many factors against them; as long as they believe that in their case they can achieve what they want. Furthermore, they are convinced of it, because when optimists imagine possible scenarios, they focus on the short-term consequences because when optimists imagine the possible scenarios, they do so in greater detail and see it closer in time. In contrast to negative scenarios, where apart from being more unspecific in the details, they distance them in time [15, 17].

In traffic psychology, optimistic biases and belief in the illusion of control may be two determining variables to explain risk factors in driving [18–20]. Therefore, it is necessary to approach the concept of perceived controllability and the perception of risk in drivers, as described below.
