Does Peer Pressure Matter When Teens are Driving?

Posted on August 9th 2012

Does the company you keep really matter in adolescence? Does having friends in the car affect a teenager's driving? A new study out of Temple University emphatically says yes!

Psychologists at Temple University used scanning technology to monitor teens and young adults’ brains when they were alone and while they were with friends. The results show that brain signals involving risk and rewards changed depending on the company. These findings take a new perspective on peer pressure and why kids take risks when they’re with friends that they wouldn’t take on their own.

The Study: Teens’ Brain Activity While Driving

The teens and young adults were given a task: to spend 6 minutes using a driving video game while their brain activity was monitored. The participants were rewarded for completing the game in a certain time, but there are yellow lights and obstacles in the game meant to slow them down (and observe their decision making ability). Both the teens and adults played 4 rounds of the game– two rounds alone and two rounds with friends observing from a different room.

The Results

The results showed that the adults who played didn’t change their behaviors when the believed their friends were watching. However, the adolescents brains showed much more “reward” activity when their friends were observing the game. “The presence of peers activated the reward circuitry of the brain of adolescents that it didn’t do in the case of the adults. We think we’ve uncovered one very plausible explanation for why adolescents do a lot of stupid things with their friends that they wouldn’t do when they are by themselves,” said the author of the study, Laurence Steinberg.

The most interesting twist is that the friends weren’t in the same room while they observed the driver. The participant couldn’t even see his/her friends. Yet, the “peer pressure” was there.

What Can You Do?

Human Relations Media offers programs on this topic. For more information on peer pressure, see our program: Choose to Refuse: Saying No and Keeping Your Friends.

For more information on safe driving, see our programs: Dangerous Decisions: Think Before You Act OR Danger Behind the Wheel: The Facts about Distracted Driving

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