Socio-psychological determinants of the attitudes of various social groups towards autonomous vehicles as a technology of the future

Abstract

Background. Despite the active development of self-driving transport technology conducted by leading companies around the world, people's attitude to such technology remains ambiguous. The problem of the attitudes of individuals and various social groups to this type of transport, as well as the specifics of the socio-psychological determinants of such attitudes, remain insufficiently studied. Objective. To study the socio-psychological determinants of attitudes toward unmanned vehicles depending on professional background, specifics of the residence place, and age group. Study Participants. The study involved 967 people aged 16 to 72 years (Mage = 25.95; SD = 11.83), including 260 men (27%) and 707 women (73%). Methods. Portrait Value Questionnaire, scale “Inclusion” of the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation questionnaire, Ten-Item Personality Inventory, the methodology of “Trust/distrust of a person to the world, himself and other people”, a questionnaire of attitudes towards technology, the author's methodology for assessing attitudes towards autonomous vehicles. Results. It is shown that attitudes towards unmanned transport differ among people of different professional backgrounds, living in the cities with different population density, and belonging to different age groups. Multiple regression analysis revealed the intrapersonal predictors of such an attitude: an individual value profile, personality traits, basic trust, the need for inclusion in interpersonal communication, and a technical worldview. At the same time, the set of identified predictors depends on the socio-environmental and socio-demographic determinants. The data analysis allowed to develop an empirical model of socio-psychological determinants of a person's attitude towards an unmanned vehicle. Conclusions. The attitude towards an unmanned vehicle is determined by a number of socio-psychological determinants, which include intrapersonal (individual value profile, personality traits, basic trust, the need for inclusion in interpersonal communication and technical worldview), as well as external socio-environmental and socio-demographic determinants (professional background, place of residence and age specifics).

Keywords

• self-driving car
• unmanned vehicle
• attitude
• determinants
• technology
• expectations
• over-trust
• distrust