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Abstract In recent years, civil drones have become more and more visible in everyday life. There are numerous reports in the media covering a variety of drone aspects and technical developments. In addition, everyone is used to bird’s-eye views as common features in television, movies and photography. However, little is known about how the public perceives this development. This article reports the results of a representative national study on the acceptance of civilian drones. Overall, a balanced but slightly positive attitude towards civil drones was revealed. Factors analyzed include age, gender, place of residence or interest in technical matters, as well as the individual level of knowledge about the topic. Free verbal associations with the general term drone are described as well as concerns about the usage of civil drones. Concerning different applications of civil drones, results indicate clear approval in Germany for the use of drones in civil protection, rescue missions and research work. However, flights for advertising, leisure and parcel delivery purposes are disagreed with by at least half of those questioned. In the presentation of the results, this article describes social acceptance of civilian drones and thus helps to better understand the perception of civil unmanned aerial vehicles.
Eißfeldt et al. (Sat,) studied this question.