Americans want self-driving technology for other people more than for themselves. The reason is a familiar bias: most of us think we drive better and more safely than the average driver, so we see less need to hand over the wheel ourselves.
The study, by Stuti Agarwal, Julian De Freitas of Harvard Business School, Anya Ragnhildstveit and Carey K. Morewedge, appeared in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, July 2024 issue.
Automation for you, not for me
The authors note that road crashes are the leading cause of death worldwide for people aged 2 to 59, and nearly all are due to human error. Automated vehicles could cut that toll, along with congestion and pollution, but only if people accept them.
In a nationally representative sample of 580 Americans, and in a direct replication with 193 more, participants preferred lower levels of vehicle automation for themselves than for other drivers. They were also less likely to want a fully automated car for themselves than for others.
The gap was explained by self-enhancing comparisons. Measured against automated vehicles, people rated themselves as safer and more trustworthy drivers than other people. They saw others as less safe and trustworthy relative to the machines, and the lower they rated others, the more automation they wanted for them.
It is about us, not the cars
A second experiment with 803 participants checked whether people simply judged automated vehicles differently depending on who would ride in them. They did not. Inflated views of their own driving, not different beliefs about what the technology can do, explained why people wanted different things for themselves and for others.
The authors argue this tendency to self-enhance is an extra psychological barrier to adopting automated vehicles, separate from any doubts about the technology itself. For policymakers and carmakers, that means arguments about how safe self-driving cars are may miss the point: the person to convince is a driver who already believes they are better than average.
Study Details:
- Title: Acceptance of Automated Vehicles Is Lower for Self than Others
- Authors: Stuti Agarwal, Julian De Freitas, Anya Ragnhildstveit, Carey K. Morewedge
- Journal: Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Volume 9, Issue 3
- Publication Date: July 2024
- DOI: 10.1086/729900