PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Study: Emotional responses crucial to attitudes about self-driving cars

2025-05-27
(Press-News.org) PULLMAN, Wash. -- When it comes to public attitudes toward using self-driving cars, understanding how the vehicles work is important—but so are less obvious characteristics like feelings of excitement or pleasure and a belief in technology’s social benefits.

Those are key insights of a new study from researchers at Washington State University, who are examining attitudes toward self-driving cars as the technology creeps toward the commercial market—and as questions persist about whether people will readily adopt them.

The study, published in the journal Transportation Research, surveyed 323 people on their perceptions of autonomous vehicles. Researchers found that considerations such as how much people understand and trust the cars are important in determining whether they would eventually choose to use them.

“But in addition, we found that some of the non-functional aspects of autonomous vehicles are also very important,” said Wei Peng, an assistant professor in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU.

These included the emotional value associated with using the cars, such as feelings of excitement, enjoyment or novelty; beliefs about the broader impact on society; and curiosity about learning how the technology works and its potential role in the future, Peng said.

In addition, they found that respondents would want to give the technology a test drive before adopting it.

“This is not something where you watch the news and say, ‘I want to buy it or I want to use it,’” Peng said. “People want to try it first.”

The new paper is the latest research on the subject from Peng and doctoral student Kathryn Robinson-Tay. In a paper published in 2023, they examined whether people believed the vehicles were safe, finding that simply knowing more about how the cars work did not improve perceptions about risk—people needed to have more trust in them, too.

The new study examined the next step in the decision-making chain: What would motivate people to actually use an autonomous vehicle?

Answering that question is important as the technology moves toward becoming a reality on the roads. Already, carmakers are adding autonomous features to models, and self-driving taxis have begun operating in a handful of U.S, cities, such as Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Fully self-driving vehicles could become available by 2035.

It is estimated they could prevent 90% of accidents while improving mobility for people with limited access to transportation. However, achieving those benefits would require widespread, rapid adoption—a big hurdle given that public attitudes toward the cars have been persistently negative and the rollout of “robotaxies” have been bumpy, with some high-profile accidents and recalls. In a national survey by AAA released in February, 60 percent of respondents said they were afraid to use the cars.

Widespread adoption would be crucial because roadways shared by self-driving and human-driven cars may not bring about safety improvements, in part because self-drivers may not be able to predict and respond to unpredictable human drivers.

One surprise in the study is that respondents did not trust vehicles more when they discovered they were easy to use—which opens a new question for future research: “What is it about thinking the car is easy to use that makes people trust it less?” Robinson-Tay asked.

Attitudes about self-driving cars depend heavily on individual circumstances, and can be nuanced in surprising ways. For example, those with a strong “car-authority identity”—a personal investment in driving and displaying knowledge about automobiles—and more knowledge about self-driving cars were more likely to believe the cars would be easy to use.

But respondents with more knowledge were less likely to view the cars as useful—a separate variable from ease of use.

Other considerations also play a role. Those who can’t drive due to disability or other reasons may have a stronger motivation to use them, as might drivers with significant concerns about heavy traffic or driving in inclement weather.

“If I really worry about snowy weather, like we experience in Pullman in winter, is it going to help?” Peng said. “If I really worry about weather, I might get a car like that if it would help me steer clear of dangerous weather conditions.”

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NCSA shapes students’ computing dreams

2025-05-27
Students Pushing Innovation (SPIN) participant Mankeerat Singh Sidhu and National Center for Supercomputing Applications graduate student researcher Hetarth Chopra won first place in the 2025 Cozad New Venture Challenge for Tandemn, an innovative software solution designed to help democratize artificial intelligence computing resources. Tandemn links idle graphics processing units (GPUs) into unified, high-performance networks designed for AI computing. The goal is to lower costs and barriers to GPU access while providing owners with possible users for their underutilized resources. “While everyone talks about ‘democratizing ...

Can AI analogize?

2025-05-27
Can large language models (LLMs) reason by analogy? Some outputs suggest that they can, but it has been argued that these results reflect mimicry of the results of analogical reasoning in the models’ training data. To test this claim, LLM’s have been asked to solve counterfactual problems that are unlikely to be  similar to problems in training data sets. Here is an example: Let’s solve a puzzle problem involving the following fictional alphabet: [x y l k w b f z t n j r q a h v g m u o p d i c s e] Here is the ...

AI aversion in social interactions

2025-05-27
An experimental study suggests that people are less likely to behave in a trusting and cooperative manner when interacting with AI than when interacting with other humans.  Scientists use experimental games to probe how humans make social decisions requiring both rational and moral thinking. Fabian Dvorak and colleagues compared how humans act in classic two-player games when playing with another human to how humans act when playing with a large-language model acting on behalf of another human. Participants played the Ultimatum ...

In dry conditions, locust babies are born with their first lunch

2025-05-27
Locusts have undersized babies—with their first lunch already in their guts—in dry conditions. Desert locusts have two distinct modes—solitary and gregarious—that are behaviorally and visibly different. The insects also live in the Sahara desert, an environment with frequent dry conditions. Koutaro Ould Maeno and colleagues explored how a lack of moisture and the presence of other locusts shift reproductive resource allocation in the insects. In lab experiments, the authors raised locusts in crowds and in isolation. Crowd-reared females produced fewer, larger eggs than females raised in ...

Feedback loops between disease and human behavior can produce epidemic waves

2025-05-27
Epidemics of infectious disease often come in waves, but the causes of these waves aren’t clear, frustrating efforts to predict or mitigate them. Are waves of infection caused by transmission seasonality, viral mutations, implementation of public health interventions, or something else? Claus Kadelka and colleagues model how human behavior, in response to information about disease risk, can create waves. There is frequently a lag between infection prevalence and the information about that prevalence reaching the public. Once ...

How Japan’s older adults adapted to healthcare challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic

2025-05-27
Public healthcare emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can drastically disrupt healthcare systems with long-term repercussions. The effects of such healthcare crises are more pronounced in the aging population, who are particularly vulnerable to chronic infections and sudden disruptions in healthcare. The COVID-19 outbreak that emerged in December 2019 quickly spread worldwide, and several emergency measures were urgently implemented to curb its transmission. During the initial phase of the pandemic, stringent measures like social distancing, isolation, and mandatory wearing of masks were implemented. Unfortunately, ...

Chronic renal failure: Discovery of a crucial biomarker

2025-05-27
In a world first, Canadian scientists at the CRCHUM, the hospital research centre affiliated with Université de Montréal, have identified microRNA able to protect small blood vessels and support kidney function after severe injury. For the four million people diagnosed with chronic renal failure in Canada—and millions more abroad—this scientific advancement could have a major impact on early diagnosis and prevention of the disease. Previously, there was no known reliable biomarker for evaluating the health of these capillaries and for developing ...

Study quantifies the sleep loss and disruption experienced by new mothers

2025-05-27
DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting quantifies the amount of sleep loss experienced by first-time mothers in the weeks after giving birth and is the first to identify the unique type of sleep disruption that persists throughout the first months of motherhood. Results show that the average daily sleep duration of new mothers was 4.4 hours during the first week after giving birth compared with a pre-pregnancy sleep duration of 7.8 hours. Their longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep also fell from 5.6 hours at pre-pregnancy to 2.2 hours in the first week after delivery. Nearly one-third of participants (31.7%) went more than 24 hours without sleep ...

Location matters: Belly fat compared to overall body fat more strongly linked to psoriasis risk

2025-05-27
Philadelphia, May 27, 2025 – Researchers have found that central body fat, especially around the abdomen, is more strongly linked to psoriasis risk than total body fat, particularly in women. This link between central fat and psoriasis remained consistent regardless of genetic predisposition, indicating that abdominal fat is an independent risk factor. The study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier, provides insights that could help improve early risk prediction and guide personalized prevention strategies. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that can have a significant impact on quality of life. Many individuals with psoriasis also ...

Home water-use app improves water conservation

2025-05-27
A UC Riverside-led study has found that a smartphone app that tracks household water use and alerts users to leaks or excessive consumption offers a promising tool for helping California water agencies meet state-mandated conservation goals. Led by Mehdi Nemati, an assistant professor of public policy at UCR, the study found that use of the app—called Dropcountr—reduced average household water use by 6%, with even greater savings among the highest water users. Dropcountr works by interpreting water-use data from smart water meters, which many utilities originally ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Scientists discover unknown organelle inside our cells

Gone with the glaciers: Researchers track unprecedented ice loss

Even in athletes, obese BMI associated with worse concussion recovery

ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress 2025: Event announcement

The Drug Target Discovery Institute of Korea University successfully held opening symposium

UNM astronomers confirm new gas giant exoplanet with help from citizen scientists worldwide

Electrochemical catheter hub could prevent bloodstream infections

Spotting bad batteries before they malfunction

Grip strength gives researchers a new handle on psychosis

Metals found in disposable e-cigarette vapor could pose health risks

Disposable e-cigarettes more toxic than traditional cigarettes

Technical refinement in airway surgery: Wrapping tracheobronchial anastomoses

Understanding how a key protein helps aggressive blood cancer grow, paving the way for targeted therapies

Uncovering the role of vitamin C in skin regeneration

Advancing regenerative agriculture: TUdi unveils new digital tools for soil health monitoring

More staff addressing mental health in schools buffers toll of growing up in disadvantaged communities

Still top cause of death, the types of heart disease people are dying from is changing

Scientists detect deep Earth pulses beneath Africa

As fewer Americans die from heart attacks, more succumb to chronic heart disease

Guidance issued for GPs managing weight-loss injection patients

Low-cost carbon capture? Bury wood debris in managed forests

Scientists unravel mystery of Mycetoma grain formation

Exposure to particulate matter during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity

How a propolis compound with health benefits interacts with cell membranes: Study reveals nymphaeol a in action

Flawed impact metrics jeopardize EU deregulation plans, study finds

New study calls for rethink on alcohol policy

New Danish research centre to make designed proteins with vast potential

Thin-film research enters new era with innovative AI approach

Smart amplifier enabler for more qubits in future quantum computers

Following the tracks of an extremely adaptive bacterium

[Press-News.org] Study: Emotional responses crucial to attitudes about self-driving cars