A new report has suggested that evolutionary psychology and neurobiology may help to explain why men are statistically more dangerous behind the wheel of a car than their female counterparts.
The esure academic study entitled Sex Differences in Driving and Insurance Risk asserts that a natural inclination towards risk-seeking behaviour which may have assisted males millennia ago could be partly responsible for instances of dangerous driving among males today.
The report's author, Professor Geoffrey Beattie of Manchester University said: "Much of the circuitry of the human brain evolved to meet the requirements of societies and cultures very different from our own."
He added that large parts of our neurological makeup still encourage behaviour that was designed to overcome tasks in the stone age.
Mike Pickard, head of risk and underwriting at esure
car insurance, added that there has been little discussion of the role that evolutionary psychology could play in dangerous driving, with education said to be very important in encouraging good practice on the roads.
Earlier this month, esure published research which suggested that fits of sneezing caused as many as two million incidences of dangerous driving in the UK.
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