Communications - Scientific letters of the University of Zilina X:X | DOI: 10.26552/com.C.2026.050

Gender Differences in Visual Attention and Stated Preferences during Evaluation of Battery Electric Vehicles: An Exploratory Eye-Tracking Study

Viktória Cvacho ORCID...1, Radovan Madleòák ORCID...1, *, Alessandro Pagano ORCID...2, Edward Koz³owski ORCID...3
1 University of Zilina, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, Department of Communications, Zilina, Slovakia
2 University of Bari Aldo Moro, Department of Computer Science, Bari, Italy
3 Lublin University of Technology, Faculty of Management, Department of Quantitative Methods in Management, Lublin, Poland

In this exploratory study were examined the gender differences in visual attention and stated preferences during the evaluation of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) using eye-tracking. Thirty-two participants (18 men, 14 women) viewed static images of the ten top-selling BEVs in Slovakia while eye movements were recorded across four predefined Areas of Interest (AOIs). Vehicle design attracted the greatest absolute dwell time in both groups. No gender difference reached conventional statistical significance (all p > 0.05), yet medium effect sizes were obtained for brand (d = 0.69), acceleration (d = 0.67), vehicle equipment (d = 0.60) and trunk capacity (d = 0.53), all rated higher by women, whereas men more often cited driving range as the main reason for model choice. The findings are hypothesis-generating and motivate confirmatory research with larger, purposively balanced samples.

Keywords: battery electric vehicle, consumer behaviour, gender differences, eye-tracking, visual attention, areas of interest, exploratory study
Grants and funding:

This research was supported by grant project I-24-028-09 of the University of Zilina.

Conflicts of interest:

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Received: July 16, 2026; Accepted: August 12, 2026; Prepublished online: September 7, 2026 

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