Abstract

The article examines the adherence to positive and negative politeness through the encoding and decoding of driving signs and signals in South America. The investigation is carried out on four variables: age, gender, education, and the nation-state. This study reveals that age and education significantly improve drivers’ adherence to negative politic-driving behavior. Still, they do not correlate with adherence to positive politic-driving behavior. The study also reveals that Bolivian, Peruvian, Chilean, and Colombian drivers have the highest overall frequency of adhering to politic-driving behavior in South America. It is found that Peruvian female, Colombian female, Venezuelan female, and Colombian male drivers have the highest tendency to adhere to negative politic-driving behavior, and Colombian female, Chilean female, Paraguayan female, Venezuelan female, and Bolivian female and male drivers have the highest tendency to use the positive politic-driving behavior. It is also found that Argentinean, Brazilian, and Uruguayan drivers have an average tendency to adhere to negative and positive politic-driving behavior. This study revealed gender education and gender-age correlations associated with negative political behavior adherence. Still, no such gender or age correlations are identified for positive politic-driving behavior. This latter point reveals that positive politeness and positive politic-driving behavior are the cultural norms in South America. Still, negative politeness and negative politic-driving behavior are gained/acquired behaviors through education and age maturity, particularly for females.