If you are prone to road rage, you should consider the music you play in your vehicle.

According to a new study, quickly putting on mellow music is the best way of calming down a stressed driver.

It is already widely accepted that the type of music a person listens to can influence their mood and style of driving. For example, more accidents occur when drivers are listening to ‘upbeat' music. This may be because this type of music can be more distracting or can lead to the driver going faster.

More downbeat or mellow music on the other hand is more relaxing and can lead to safer driving as a result.

Bearing this in mind, Dutch scientists set out to assess whether changing music quickly or more slowly had an effect on a driver's mood.

Participants ‘drove' in a simulator while listening to various types of music. During the test, they had to deal with a number of difficult driving conditions. The number of mistakes they made, including accidents, were recorded.

The study found that those who switched to more mellow music became calmer irrespective of whether they changed music immediately or more gradually.

However, it also found that those who switched to calmer music immediately became calmer more quickly and recorded fewer accidents.

"During high-demand driving, abrupt changes in music led to more physiological calmness and improved driving performance and were thus safer and more effective," the scientists concluded.

They added that their findings show that music being played in a car is more than just background noise.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Ergonomics.