Does injury proneness aid or impair navigation ability? A study on self-reported errors, risk and evaluation behaviors in relation to sense of direction.

Sense of direction, a self-reported navigation ability, is essential in daily life for efficient navigation. Research has shown that individual difference factors may contribute to variability in this aspect, with accident proneness being one of them. The main aim of the current study was to examine whether proneness to injury-related behavior, with its different facets, is related to self-reported navigation ability. A total of 412 participants, from 20 to 86 years of age (215 women), filled a questionnaire on sense of direction and another on injury-related behavior, assessing propensity for errors behaviors, risky behaviors and dangers evaluation. Fluid reasoning and Mental rotations tasks were also completed. The results of regression models showed that significant predictors of self-reported navigation scores were gender (men having higher ratings), age (older age was associated with higher ratings), injury-related behavior in terms of errors (a higher score in error was associated with lower ratings) and risk (a higher score of risky behaviors is associated with greater ratings). Overall, the study shows that self-reported navigation ability is positively related with risk proneness and negatively with error proneness, offering fresh evidence for a deeper understanding of variability in people's sense of direction.