Car Park Life

A YourParkingSpace.co.uk survey has revealed that one in ten people have been threatened with physical violence in car parks. There’s a psychological reason for this. An American study, Territorial Defense in Parking Lots: Retaliation Against Waiting Drivers, shows that when drivers are about to leave a parking space, while another car waits to enter that same space, they exhibit protective territorial behaviours. This includes procrastination techniques such as faffing with the seat belt, selecting a radio station, checking their phone or messing with the air conditioning. The waiting car is a predatory threat to the parked driver, stimulating primal urges in their reptilian brain. This gets worse if the waiting driver parps their horn impatiently, an act of aggression that will cause the leaver to tarry even longer. The study found that, for men, the status of the waiting car is influential. For instance, if a Lexus is the waiting vehicle, men drive away sooner than they might for a Nissan Micra.