Gender Differences in Responsibility Assignment Towards Level 3-ADS Vehicles

Numerous collisions have occurred since integrating vehicles with automated driving system (ADS) features. Attributed responsibility following collisions differ dependent on level of automation or anthropomorphism. However, gender differences are yet to be examined. Thus, the current study examined gender differences in responsibility assignment following collisions involving an ADS-equipped vehicle and the influence of a driving assistant (DA) that administered monitoring requests. Participants read hypothetical scenarios and watched corresponding simulated videos with or without the DA present before assigning blame to the human or the ADS. Hypotheses included gender differences in overall blame assignment, and interaction effects between gender and DA presence; gender and agent; and gender, DA presence, and agent. Results indicated gender differences when assigning responsibility to the human agent only. No other significant differences were supported indicating that men and women generally attribute blame similarly. However, further demographic differences (e.g., age, socio-economic status) should be explored.