Do you like "loud" cars? Psychologists say it indicates a tendency to sadism

A psychologist Julie Aitken Shermer from the University of Western Ontario in Canada surveyed and analyzed the responses of over 500 people to explore the relationship between "dark" personality traits and love for loud cars with modified exhaust systems.

"Since these modifications disrupt people and animals, and are illegal in some jurisdictions... understanding who desires their car to sound louder is an interesting research question," Shermer wrote in Psychology Today.

The average age of the surveyed individuals is 18 years, with 52% of them being men. Respondents were asked about their attitude towards loud cars and exhaust modifications, and were additionally asked to complete the dark triad - a 28-item scale measuring Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism personality traits.

Shermer mentioned that she often encounters loud cars when walking her dog, and speculated that the desire to modify the exhaust to make it louder could be related to seeking attention.

"We found that a tendency towards sadism and psychopathy distinguishes those who want to modify their exhaust systems, who feel stronger bond with their car, and who believe that loud cars are really cool," Shermer says. "They probably enjoy watching people get scared."

In the end, high scores in the desire to have a loud car showed a connection with each of the dark triad traits (although slightly in the case of Machiavellianism and narcissism, which cannot be said about sadism).

Although the study provides certain insights, there are, of course, caveats. Participants in this small sample were relatively young, and all were pursuing a business degree at one university, so Shermer's conclusions may not apply to broader population groups. During the study, respondents were only asked about their desire to own loud cars, but they did not actually own them; and other noisy vehicles, such as motorcycles, were not investigated.

The study is published in Current Issues in Personality Psychology (via Science Alert).