Document Type
Article
Abstract
We examine the moral dilemma of how autonomous vehicles (AVs) should be programmed to act in unavoidable crash scenarios involving trade-offs between saving one life and saving many. We report results from three experimental studies that investigate individuals’ preferences over alternative AV decision rules in stylized crash scenarios. Across designs, we find robust support for a probabilistic decision rule that assigns passengers and pedestrians equal ex ante chances of survival (a 50:50 rule). This preference persists across different framings and remains salient even when additional probabilistic options are introduced.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in Games, Volume 17, Issue 1, 2026, pages 10-.
APA Citation
Matros, A., Bilen, E., & Matros, L. (2026). Equal Chances or Fewer Victims? Moral Judgments in Autonomous Vehicle Dilemmas. Games, 17(1), 10.https://doi.org/10.3390/g17010010
Rights
© 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.