Research on the influence and mechanism of human–vehicle moral matching on trust in autonomous vehicles

INTRODUCTION: Autonomous vehicles can have social attributes and make ethical decisions during driving. In this study, we investigated the impact of human-vehicle moral matching on trust in autonomous vehicles and its mechanism. METHODS: A 2*2 experiment involving 200 participants was conducted. RESULTS: The results of the data analysis show that utilitarian moral individuals have greater trust than deontological moral individuals. Perceived value and perceived risk play a double-edged role in people’s trust in autonomous vehicles. People’s moral type has a positive impact on trust through perceived value and a negative impact through perceived risk. Vehicle moral type moderates the impact of human moral type on trust through perceived value and perceived risk. DISCUSSION: The conclusion shows that heterogeneous moral matching (people are utilitarian, vehicles are deontology) has a more positive effect on trust than homogenous moral matching (both people and vehicles are deontology or utilitarian), which is consistent with the assumption of selfish preferences of individuals. The results of this study provide theoretical expansion for the fields related to human-vehicle interaction and AI social attributes and provide exploratory suggestions for the functional design of autonomous vehicles.