Mission-Based Citizen Views on UAV Usage and Privacy: An Affective Perspective

As more uses for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) appear, operators and government are struggling to identify how to incorporate these devices into the airspace system. The perceptions of citizens may play a role in whether they are accepted or rejected by society because concerns over privacy have been a major issue expressed by citizens. The purpose of these studies was to examine two UAV missions that may raise privacy concerns.

In one condition, the UAV was continuously operated, in the other the UAV was sent up for one specific mission at a time. The data suggests that citizens’ concerns for privacy were less in the condition where the UAV was only used for a specific mission than when it was operated continuously. Affect measures showed that emotions play a significant role in a citizen’s response. Through six unique and universal facial expressions, study 3 identified that disgust and fear were two main emotions that mediated the relationship between the usage of the UAV and concerns over privacy. The findings of these studies may have practical implications for both operators (private and military) and regulators in the government as both struggle to decide how successful implementation of UAVs into the airspace system should occur.