Personality traits predict decisions in crisis situations.

The results of Professor Christian Wallraven’s research team continue to be published 

in world-renowned journals.

High expectations for its influence on the behavioral guidelines of autonomous vehicles.

The findings of the study showed that individual personalities influenced decisions in crisis situations.

▲ From left: Professor Christian Wallraven (corresponding author), Uijong Ju (1st author, doctoral student) 

A team led by Prof. Christian Wallraven, Department of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, has found through a series of studies that personality traits can predict decision making in accident situations. First author on the paper was doctoral student, Uijong Ju.

This study is expected to increase understanding of how people behave in critical emergency situations.

The first study was published online in the February 5, 2019 issue of the phycology journal, Frontiers in Psychology (Title: To brake or not to brake? Personality traits predict decision-making in an accident situation). A second study was published on February 25 in the world-renowned computer science journal, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Title: You or me? Personality traits predict sacrificial decision-making in an accident situation).

Professor Wallraven, a co-author of the paper, commented on the significance of the study by saying, “This study not only provides insight into human decision making in urgent situations by analyzing and predicting decision-making in emergency situations, but will also be helpful in developing the behavioral guidelines of the artificial intelligence of autonomous vehicles.”

[Introduction]

Title 1 - To brake or not to brake? Personality traits predict decision-making in an accident situation

Virtual reality is being used to study human behavior in various situations that cannot be implemented due to ethical and safety issues in real life. In this study, an emergency situation is simulated by utilizing the advantages of virtual reality. The subjects of the experiment are driving in the virtual reality and are faced with a situation in which pedestrians suddenly appear on the road ahead, but the car cannot stop because the brakes are not working. In a situation where an accident is unavoidable, the decision of the subjects turned out to be either one of two cases, ignoring the pedestrians and continuing driving or stepping on the inoperable brakes to try to avoid the crash no matter what. The results of the experiment showed that people who ignored pedestrians and continued driving had significantly higher psychopathy than those who did not.

(Figure 1) Experiment 1 – Accident Situation

It is not possible for a car to escape through people and the vehicle cannot be stopped because the brakes are not working. The subjects' decisions are divided into either ignoring the pedestrians or trying to stop to avoid them.

Title 2- You or me? Personality traits predict sacrificial decision-making in an accident situation

A new option of self-sacrifice was added to a driving situation similar to the previous study to investigate decisions in emergency situations. The subject is driving in the virtual reality and confronts a situation where an accident cannot be avoided at a crossroad where one side leads off a cliff. Experiments were carried out in two different groups, where pedestrians appeared (experimental group) or trees collapsed on the safe side of the crossroad (control group). In both cases, the vehicle could not be stopped. When pedestrians were blocking the safe path, the probability of the subject falling off the cliff is significantly higher. As a result of analyzing how personality traits predict decision making by using logistic regression, impulsivity among the personality traits significantly predicted the behavior of both groups; only the condition with pedestrians could be predicted by psychopathy. The results of this study show that the reason for self-sacrifice is not because the driver instinctively avoids the obstacles in front, but because it is people that are blocking the road, which shows that personality traits affect decision making.

(Figure 2) Experiment 2 – Accident Situation

(A) Immediately before the accident, warning that a right turn at the crossroad would lead to a cliff

(B) Accident situation (experimental group) - pedestrians are blocking the “safe” path. Since the brakes do not work, the subject must choose between one of the two roads on the left or right.

(C) Accident situation (control group) – a collapsed tree blocks the “safe” path.