Gaze Allocation and Pupil Responses in Autonomous Vehicle Moral Dilemmas

When a moral choice determines who will be harmed, does gaze follow those spared or the outcome selected? To address this question, we recorded choices, eye movements, and pupil responses from 186 participants evaluating 50 autonomous vehicle (AV) dilemmas. Passenger and pedestrian numbers were crossed with the default-sacrifice condition, allowing either group to be sacrificed through maintaining or changing course. Across participants, choices revealed preferences for saving more lives, sparing pedestrians, and maintaining course. Initial fixations predominantly targeted the AV–passenger region. During deliberation, greater visual engagement with the two human groups was associated with stronger numerical sensitivity. Finally, terminal gaze was associated with the collision target of the selected trajectory, under both course maintenance and course change. Pedestrian-sacrifice choices were associated with larger decision-related pupil responses. Together, these findings connect visual attention and physiological responses with how people weigh and select outcomes in AV moral dilemmas. The alignment of terminal gaze with the selected collision target characterizes choice-related viewing across the outcome mappings.