For those who revel in the roar of engines and the symphony of horsepower, loud cars are more than just vehicles - they're a way of life. For them, every rev of the engine is a thunderous declaration of passion, a statement that transcends mere transportation. And some of them even modify their cars so that the exhaust can produce a deafening blare. But a new study has linked the desire to own this type of car to higher levels of sadism and psychopathy.
The research has been carried out by University of Western Ontario in Canada, according to Science Alert. The team, led by psychologist Julie Aitkem Schermer, analysed more than 500 people to investigate the relationship between dark personality traits and a preference for loud cars.
"As these exhaust modifications are both a disturbance to people and animals and are illegal in some jurisdictions... understanding who wants their vehicle to be loud is an interesting research question," the expert wrote in Psychology Today.
Out of the 529 participants, 52 per cent were male. They were asked questions like feelings towards loud cars, identification with their own cars, and the potential to modify their mufflers. The higher scores indicating on 'car scale' showed a preference for loud cars.
Ms Schermer also gave them a Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) personality measure - a questionnaire to assess malicious personality traits.
"We found that it was sadism and psychopathy was predicting who wants to modify their mufflers, who feels more connected to their vehicle, and they think loud cars are really cool," she told CBC.
"It seems to be this callous disregard for other people's feelings and their reactions. That's the psychopathy coming out and it's also they probably get a kick out of enjoying watching people get startled," the researchers further said.
The pilot study, titled 'A desire for a loud car with a modified muffler is predicted by being a man and higher scores on psychopathy and sadism', has been published in the international journal Current Issues in Personality Psychology.
