Gender differences in pedestrian hazard perception: evidence from an event-related potential study.

OBJECTIVE: Gender differences in pedestrian hazard perception were investigated using the event-related potential technique.

METHODS: The study utilized images of two types of real traffic situations as test materials: hazard situations and nonhazard situations. The presence of hazards in the displayed situations was determined by 30 adult subjects (including 17 females), who indicated their observations by pressing a button.

RESULTS: The results revealed that females exhibited a shorter N1 latency in hazard situations, while males exhibited a larger P3 amplitude compared to females.

CONCLUSION: These results indicate that females are more sensitive to hazard situations during the early visual processing stage, while males give more attention to traffic situations during the late attention allocation stage.