title: Acciphilia on the road: An analysis of severe collisions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although prior studies of road traffic accidents have found between-group differences in risk, little attention has been given to the encounter between drivers involved in severe collisions.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study empirically evaluates two different possible causes of "social accidents," which are defined as collisions between two or more drivers where some faulty social interaction might be assumed, and which are the most prevalent cause of road injuries. The analyses use merged Israeli collision records from 1983 to 2004 with data from two national censuses, thus providing an unprecedented empirical basis to study the social foundations of car accidents. The data are used to adjudicate between two alternative hypotheses: the heterogeneity hypothesis (socially different drivers tend to collide) versus the homogeneity hypothesis (socially similar drivers tend to collide).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multivariate analyses provide preliminary support for the latter hypothesis. Given an accident, there are more collisions among drivers from the same broad educational group, and the factors that influence this correlation are independent of geography. The paper thus leads to the idea that severe collisions reflect a sociological or ecological process that is akin to acciphilia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The preliminary findings suggest that variation between drivers may be preferable to similarity, since apparently there is a greater tendency toward collisions between similar drivers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA. rfactor@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Roni
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Factor
authors.forename: Gad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yair
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mahalel
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001336:Automobiles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003469:Culture; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011634:Public Health; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult