Teens who listen to their favorite music in the car typically drive worse, according to a new study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

For the study, researchers had 85 teen drivers take six challenging 40-minute trips behind the wheel: Two featured music from the teens’ own playlists, two without any music, and two with music designed to improve driving performance.

Scientists discovered that almost all the teens tested, 98 percent, made some serious driving errors—with a third requiring a verbal warning and a fifth needing to make an emergency maneuver to avoid an accident. Driving without music, ironically, was not much better. However, listening to lighter fare cut down on bad driving by about 20 percent.

“Most drivers worldwide prefer to listen to music in a car, and those between ages 16 and 30 choose driving to pop, rock, dance, hip-hop and rap,” says Warren Brodsky, the director of music science research for the university. “Drivers in general are not aware that as they get drawn in by a song, they move from an extra-personal space involving driving tasks to a more personal space of active music listening.” (ScienceDaily)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.