Unraveling the multidimensional impacts of the energy crisis on citizens’ judgment and decision-making

Abstract

The energy crisis has reshaped energy politics, resulting in energy price surges, increased energy capacity, and large-scale energy-saving campaigns. While an overall energy demand reduction has been observed in Europe, little is known about how the crisis has impacted citizens’ climate-relevant judgment and decision-making. We report a preregistered two-wave cross-national study (N=1040) spanning the winter of 2022/2023 to investigate how support for renewable energy (RE) policies, energy literacy, and energy-efficient product choices developed as this crisis unfolded. We couple longitudinal experimental data with real-world energy price data. This natural experiment indicates that energy-efficiency preferences were shaped by both, the salience of the crisis and real-world price signals. Changes in energy literacy were contingent on the numerical abilities of participants, suggesting that the crisis increased gaps in knowledge among different groups in society. Overall support for RE policies, and prioritization of key policy attributes, remained stable despite shifts in public attention and uncertainty.