{"id":7577,"date":"2016-10-03T16:13:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T21:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/?p=7577"},"modified":"2025-04-16T17:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T22:58:19","slug":"brain-apps-distracted-driving-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/news\/brain-apps-distracted-driving-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Breeda McGrath offers expertise on why people feel comfortable driving while distracted"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Most motorists know<\/em> that driving while distracted is extremely dangerous, yet they continue to do it anyway in frightening numbers. You might consider it a case of collective cognitive dissonance<\/a> if<\/em> distracted drivers felt stress or mental discomfort over the contradiction. But that’s just the problem \u2014 they don’t<\/em>.” The Chicago School’s Dr. Breeda McGrath explains why this may be so and what can be done to change the behavior in this article on cars.com<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Driving can feel like a passive, automatic activity that doesn’t require thinking, so in that state, people are free to think [about] a variety of other activities… It’s essentially about multitasking.”<\/em><\/p>\n

About Dr. McGrath<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"bmcgrath300\"Dr. Breeda McGrath is the dean of Academic Affairs for the Online Campus<\/a> and department chair of the International Psychology Program Online<\/a>. She joined The Chicago School in 2007 and has served in a number of roles including dean of Academic Affairs for the Chicago Campus, associate dean, associate chair, Faculty Council chair, and associate professor in the School Psychology Program<\/a>. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Most motorists know that driving while distracted is extremely dangerous, yet they continue to do it anyway in frightening numbers. You might consider it a case of collective cognitive dissonance if distracted drivers felt stress or mental discomfort over the contradiction. But that’s just the problem \u2014 they don’t.” The Chicago School’s Dr. Breeda McGrath explains why this may be so and what can be done to change the behavior in this article on cars.com. “Driving can feel like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[259,260,261],"coauthors":[1084],"class_list":["post-7577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-breeda-mcgrath","tag-international-psychology","tag-online-campus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Breeda McGrath offers expertise on why people feel comfortable driving while distracted - Insight Digital Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Breeda McGrath of The Chicago School explains the psychology behind distracted driving and why many motorists underestimate its risks, in Cars.com.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/news\/brain-apps-distracted-driving-dilemma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Breeda McGrath offers expertise on why people feel comfortable driving while distracted - 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