US experiencing rising road rage incidents: NBC

WASHINGTON - The United States is confronting a large quantity of road rage incidents, and last year marked one of the worse years on record for road rage shootings across the country, NBC News has reported.

"The more drivers engage in aggressive 'anger rumination,' the more upset they become, and the more they engage in dangerous driving behaviors," said the report published Sunday.

Brad Bushman, a social psychologist and communication professor at The Ohio State University, believes there are two related factors for the uptick in road rage.

The first is frustration. "Frustration is defined as blocking goal-directed behavior. The (COVID-19) pandemic has blocked many goals for many people," the report quoted Bushman as saying.

The second factor is also related to COVID-19, but in a different way, which is combined with a dramatic rise in gun sales across America over the past few years.

"Although guns don't directly cause aggression, they dramatically increase the likelihood that any situation involving conflict will be fatal," Bushman said.

Bushman's analysis makes sense, the report noted, adding that human beings have "a built-in emergency system," which has likely been "inflamed by pandemic-related isolation, the disinformation that has spread on social media and our nationwide access to lethal weapons."