Ben D. Sawyer

New England University Transportation Center

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Ben D. Sawyer is a researcher at the intersection of human factors, transportation safety, and human-machine trust. His work focuses on how drivers allocate attention and visual behavior in multitasking environments, particularly when interacting with automated systems. In his highly cited 2017 paper, "Trust Impacts Driver Glance Strategy in Multitasking," Sawyer demonstrated that patterns of gaze are not merely mechanical but are deeply influenced by trust dynamics—paralleling findings from human-to-human and primate social interactions. This contribution has helped shape a growing literature on trust and visual attention in automated driving contexts, with implications for designing safer in-vehicle interfaces. Though early in his career, Sawyer’s work has already garnered attention for bridging cognitive psychology and engineering, offering a novel lens on how trust shapes real-world behavior behind the wheel. His research is foundational for understanding the subtle, non-verbal cues that govern human-automation interaction, making him a rising voice in the field of transportation human factors.