Who should be responsible? Responsibility attribution and public response to data security risks in China’s intelligent connected vehicles

As the global Internet of Vehicles (IoV) industry continues to expand, the associated risks, such as data security, software vulnerabilities, communication hijacking, and privacy breaches in intelligent connected vehicles, have become increasingly severe. This issue has emerged as an urgent concern for governments worldwide. Understanding the public's attribution of responsibility for these risks, the factors influencing such attributions, and how these attributions affect public response behaviors is crucial for creating an effective risk communication environment and promoting the healthy development of the IoV industry. Our study categorizes public response behaviors into defensive and positive coping behaviors on the basis of attitudes toward risk. We conduct surveys within and empirical analyses of major Chinese cities where intelligent connected vehicles are predominantly used and perform a heterogeneity analysis among cities of different administrative levels to explore how the public attributes responsibility and reacts to these risks. Data from 523 respondents indicate that while both types of response behaviors are influenced by risk perception and sources of information, only positive coping behaviors are affected by the attribution of responsibility. Responsibility attribution itself is influenced by risk perception, an individual's occupation, and information sources. Additionally, cities of different administrative levels show slight variations in the relationships among responsibility attribution, information sources, and response behaviors.