I find the vaaaast majority of honking is driven by impatience not any actual practical consideration (alerting others to your presence, trying to get someone's attention.)
Honking to provoke someone into taking risks you don't have to incur the consequences of yourself is mild sociopathy.
My favorite is watching a chain of cars honk at a red light. Some day, when I become the mayor of New York City, I will install sound-detecting traffic signals. If you honk at a red light, it stays red for an additional 10 seconds. The city will descend into chaos, and I will greatly enjoy watching it.
> Honking to provoke someone into taking risks you don't have to incur the consequences of yourself is mild sociopathy.
I agree. The fact that the risk is theirs and that they are obviously not confident drivers is exactly why I don't honk. I neither want that on my conscience nor want to be secondary damage when they pull out at the wrong time and cars and debris go flying.
Doesn't matter, if there isn't a dedicated arrow for the turn, I'll go when I damned well feel like it. Your definition of "yield" might differ from mine, but that is just too bad, according to the law.
And I say this is the kind of driver cuts my left turns closer than most. You know the driver that's already started their left turn before you've cleared the intersection, and it looks like they're going to hit you (but won't)? That's me; keep it movin' folks. But if the driver in front of me is less aggressive (to a point), that's cool.
About as confident as I can be without having insight into their perspective. I'm mostly referring to right turn on red scenarios where I'm not comfortable with the risk. Although, the occasional honking immediately after a light turns green also occasionally happens.
Some people are very timid at things like left turns and roundabout entry because they are not confident in their judgment of oncoming car speed, etc. (mostly Americans on that second one; Europeans seem generally seem comfortable entering roundabouts).
They may also be uncertain what another driver will do. For example, turning right onto a two lane road may be safe if the right lane is open. However, despite it not being legal, a driver in the left lane may change lanes mid intersection. I'd prefer not to risk it to save myself a few seconds.
Honking to provoke someone into taking risks you don't have to incur the consequences of yourself is mild sociopathy.