Long Story Short
The Fast and Furious movies are either super effective, or (more likely) people are super dumb.
Long Story
There are few things sweeter than Dom and the gang tearing up the big screen in the Fast and Furious films. You can decide for yourself what the best scene is; I’ll take Vin Diesel jumping a Dodge Charger over a submarine (on ice).
And it seems a lot of people feel the same way. A fascinating and semi-hilarious study printed in the New York Times has revealed that Fast and Furious movies may be encouraging people to drive like maniacs.
The Times study, led by Anupam B. Jena, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, found rates of both speeding and extreme speeding increased in the sample county of Montgomery County, Maryland, following the releases of three Fast and Furious movies between 2012 and 2017.
The study examined 192,892 speeding tickets across three weekends after the release of the films. Ticketed speeds increased almost 20%, from an average of 16 miles per hour over the speed limit to 19 miles per hour.
Rates of extreme speeding were even worse, with the number of people caught driving more than 40 miles per hour above the speed limit almost doubling. The extreme speeders were often busted within two miles of theaters, which the study’s authors say suggests the speeding was “induced by moviegoing.”
The idea behind the Times story is to look at the effect different media, such as films and video games, have on our behavior.
Often this area of research is rife with issues concerning causality, and the Times study’s authors admit their results are limited. Nevertheless, initial evidence would suggest there’s a pretty hilarious — if mildly frightening — link going on here.
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question
“Vin Diesel made me do it.” Legit defense?
Drop This Fact
Deadpool 2 director David Leitch is currently considered the frontrunner to direct Universal’s as yet untitled Fast and Furious spin-off, starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham.