Cultural Orientation Shapes Moral Judgments of Autonomous Vehicle Dilemmas

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) promise enhanced road safety but face acceptance challenges due to unavoidable moral dilemmas, particularly passenger-pedestrian conflicts. Cultural orientation may influence moral evaluations of AV decisions, yet its effects remain underexplored. Here we conducted an online survey with 346 participants from individualistic (US, Italy) and collectivistic (Turkey, Indonesia) cultures, manipulating the number of lives at stake. Results revealed a modest overall preference for pedestrian-protective choices, modulated by contextual factors and cultural orientation, with collectivist individuals favoring pedestrian protection more. These findings suggest that to enhance public acceptance, AV technologies should be designed with different moral preferences depending on the cultural context in which they have to be used.