The Effect of Religiosity on Decision Making in Self-Driving Cars: The Case of "The Ethical Knob"

Abstract

This study focused on the ethical dilemmas of self-driving cars and how religiosity levels affect consumers' perceptions of morality. Specifically, this research examined how religiosity affects consumer's comfort levels and moral perceptions of the "ethical knob" and the "ethical knob's" settings, which would allow the passenger of a self-driving car to determine how the car reacts in an unavoidable accident. Most of the hypotheses concerning the effects of religiosity surprisingly were not supported; however, the vast majority of respondents, regardless of religiosity, believed the Impartial setting was most moral, and they were most comfortable with it. This study concluded that religiosity levels alone do not affect consumers' moral perceptions of the "ethical knob" and the "ethical knob" settings, and it revealed some interesting disconnects. One would believe that more religious individuals would prefer the Impartial setting over those that are not religious due to the many moral laws and principles laid out by their religion (e.g., the inaction principle), but this study did not support this assumption. It is likely that overall cultural differences affect consumers' moral perceptions rather than one element of culture, namely religion. We must conduct more research on society's cultural elements to fully understand the moral perceptions involved in self-driving cars.