Texting while driving is clearly a stupid idea. Unfortunately, while many folks agree on that, a good number seem to carve out an exception for themselves. According to a study by Progressive Insurance and reported upon by Ride Apart, some people (cough cough millennials) think texting while driving is bad in general…but that it’s totally fine when they do it
According to the study, 33 percent of participants feel “very confident” in their ability to text while driving. However, 90 percent of study participants feel it should be illegal. As you might expect, this false sense of confidence occurred predominantly among the younger participants (people between the ages of 18-34). The study indicated that 60 percent of participants between the age of 18 and 34 felt confident in their texting while driving abilities, while only 6 percent of participants over the age of 55 felt confident in the sane.
In a statement, business leader of usage-based insurance at Progressive David Pratt said, “It’s especially interesting that most people recognize this activity is dangerous, yet many people feel confident in their own ability to text and drive.”
Breaking it down by gender, 21 percent of men are “very confident” in their ability to do the nasty habit while 11 percent of women feel the same way.
The point of this study is to show how people really understand right from wrong—but often feel these rules shouldn’t apply to them. Hopefully the clear hypocrisy in this thinking acts as a reality check, and forces people to put the phone down behind the wheel.