Public Drone Perception

Bibliographic Data

ID11237403
AuthorsMarina Miron (0000-0003-3695-6541, King's College London), David Whetham (0000-0001-8269-0006, King's College London), Margaux Auzanneau (King's College London, corresponding author), Andrew Hill (0000-0002-9111-3240), Andrew G Hill (0000-0001-8672-6379)
Year2023
Volume73
Pages102246
Publication date2023-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTechnology in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0160-791X • E-ISSN: 1879-3274
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102246
OpenAlexW4362736886
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited27

The use and popularity of unmanned arial vehicles (drones) has split over from the military domain into the civilian space in the past two decades. Its utility has been recognised not only by law enforcement agencies and the security industry at large, but also by private enterprises, leading the proliferation of drone integration in a variety of sectors. However, despite widespread recognition, concerns remain in the public domain over drone deployment. This study, funded by the TSB Technology Strategy Board (Funder Project Reference: 83074), aims to uncover the public's perception of drone use for emergency service response in a civilian context, whilst capturing how exposure to drone operations may influence and alter perception. To do this, two structured surveys were conducted pre- and post-exposure of drone flights, above a 500 m radius from a flight facility in Isleworth, UK (total population of 2363). The results of the study shed light on some statistically important indicators that influence drone perception both pre- and post-treatment; namely, technology acceptance and privacy perception. Those less concerned about privacy who already share personal information with public and private actors perceived drones positively for emergency response. Additionally, open-mindedness about new technology positively impacted public perception of drones. The post-treatment group had an additional three statistically significant predictors: age category, education level, and drone exposure. It was also found that security perception was not statistically significant. These new and novel findings in the field would require further testing to validate the predictors in other areas, in order to facilitate drone integration into civilian spaces

Business · Computer security · Context (archaeology · Drone · Enforcement · Environmental health · Geography · Internet privacy · Law enforcement · Perception · Political science · Popularity · Population · Public relations · Software deployment · Computer Science · Disaster Management and Resilience · Engineering · Evacuation and Crowd Dynamics · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · UAV Applications and Optimization · Marketing

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