Trust and Purchase Intention of Moral Autonomous Vehicles: The Influence of Collectivism-Individualism

Investigating individual preference differences in public acceptance of different moral orientations autonomous vehicles (AVs) is essential for improving the adoption of AVs. The present research investigates the effects of individuals’ individualism-collectivism on their acceptance of AVs with different moral orientations in both the first-person (as the passenger, where self-interest is involved) and the third-person (as the observer, where self-interest is not involved) perspectives. Across three studies, we found that individuals prefer to buy AVs that prioritize saving more lives when in the third-person perspective, but tend to opt for self-protection AVs when in the first-person perspective. Trust fully mediates the relationship between AVs’ moral orientation and purchase intention. Importantly, individuals’ individualism-collectivism moderates the relationship between AVs’ moral behavior and purchase intentions. Specifically, individuals with high collectivism (low individualism) are more concerned with collective interest; they had a higher preference bias for prosocial utilitarian AVs over non-utilitarian AVs when in the third-person perspective and showed an indifference level of trust and purchase intention towards self-protection and prosocial utilitarian AVs. In contrast, individuals with high individualism (low collectivism) are more concerned with self-interest; they are more inclined to trust and purchase self-protection AVs when in the first-person perspective and care less about the moral orientation of AVs when their self-interest is not involved.