Top-down norms and psychological empowerment: Explaining Chinese public acceptance of autonomous driving.

ABSTRACT: This study explains Chinese public acceptance of autonomous driving (n = 412) through subjective norms, personal norms, and psychological empowerment (cognitive, emotional, behavioral). Using covariance-based SEM with bootstrapped mediation, we find behavioral empowerment has the strongest direct effect on acceptance (≈2 × cognitive; ≈ 3.2 × emotional). All three empowerment dimensions partially mediate both subjective- and personal-norm paths, with behavioral mediation (≈46-50%) dominating. Importance-Performance Analysis highlights behavioral empowerment as high-importance/high-performance, while cognitive empowerment shows headroom for improvement. A Bayesian network confirms predictive validity with low overall error. Findings suggest design and policy should primarily strengthen users

SUBMITTER: Liao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12425220 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature