We choose what we like – Affect as a driver of electricity portfolio choice

Jobin, Marilou; Siegrist, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2018.08.027

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Though the Swiss public does not exhibit uniform preferences with regard to the expansion of renewables domestically, a main difference appears to be in terms of how best to combine domestic renewable power productionwith either renewable imports or non-renewable technologies (Jobin & Siegrist, 2018). In this study, the demonstrated portfolio preferences were mainly driven by the participants' affective responses, that is, the feelings evoked by energy technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…In this study, the demonstrated portfolio preferences were mainly driven by the participants' affective responses, that is, the feelings evoked by energy technologies. In general, the more positive people's feelings about a given energy technology are, the more likely they are to include that technology in their portfolio (Jobin & Siegrist, 2018). Yet, appeals have been made that energy consumers, among others, should be more informed about their energy-related choices and rely on facts rather than opinions (Stern et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Affect or information? Examining drivers of public preferences of future energy portfolios in Switzerland

Jobin

Visschers

Vliet

et al. 2019

Energy Research & Social Science

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The energy transition in Switzerland, as in many other countries, aims to increase the proportion of electricity produced using renewable energy technologies. In this context, governmental agencies and other institutions have attempted to communicate the implications of (domestic) electricity systems through the use of web-based and interactive decision support systems (DSSs). Studies show that, when no additional information is provided, preferences concerning the future electricity mix are mainly driven by the affective reactions that energy technologies evoke. A question remains, however, regarding how people engage with the information provided in a DSS, as well as whether such information is influential in terms of shaping people's choices. We asked our participants to build an electricity portfolio using a DSS, which modeled the Swiss electricity system. The participants' political orientation and their affective reactions to different energy technologies guided their information search, as well as the choice of energy technologies within their portfolio. The attention paid to the information provided was not directly related to the participants' portfolio choices. The selective processing of information, which was based on the participants' prior attitudes, suggests that they target information they are already familiar with in the DSS. However, this also illustrates a caveat previously identified in motivated political reasoning, since selective information processing, together with the tendency to disconfirm information that is incongruent with prior beliefs, can lead to the polarization of previously held views. As the information provided through the DSS we tested was unable to change the participants' affective-cognitive evaluation of energy technologies, its use should be carefully considered in light of the possible effects of consolidating existing beliefs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affect or information? Examining drivers of public preferences of future energy portfolios in Switzerland

Jobin

Visschers

Vliet

et al. 2019

Energy Research & Social Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Past work with climate views included has found that believing that global warming is caused mostly by humans is significant for renewable energy support in some studies, but not in others [45,71,72], and that the public does consider emissions when weighing energy preferences [71]. Additionally, general environmental views have been found to influence energy preferences [4,5,10,73,74], though this is also not consistently measured across studies. Furthermore, environmental views and climate change beliefs may be more strongly related to support for fossil fuels-based energies than for renewable energies, which seem to be less polarizing overall.…”

Section: Public Opinion Research On Energy Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many factors underlie energy policy decisions at state and federal levels, of which public opinion is one [1][2][3]. A growing body of social science literature examines public preferences for various energy sources [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9], but studies rarely measure public opinion on more than a few energy sources in the same survey effort (with some exceptions [2,10]), complicating a full picture of preferences across renewable and non-renewable options. They also rarely incorporate populations from more than one country.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Preferences in a Shifting Energy Future: Comparing Public Views of Eight Energy Sources in North America’s Pacific Northwest

Hazboun

Boudet

2020

Energies

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The U.S. and Canada continue to face major changes in energy production. Mounting awareness of the climate crisis has placed increasing importance on developing renewable energy sources, however, advances in fossil fuel extraction technology have opened vast domestic reserves of oil and natural gas. Public preferences for energy policy play a role in determining energy futures, but researchers rarely simultaneously compare public views across multiple renewable and non-renewable energies or across country boundaries. Here, we used a 2019 online survey sample (n = 1500) to compare predictors of support for eight fuel sources for electricity generation in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington and Oregon, USA. Results indicate the highest support overall for renewables (wind, solar, wave/tidal energy, geothermal) and the lowest for fossil fuels (coal and natural gas), nuclear, and hydropower. Mixed-effects regression modeling indicates that views on climate and the balance between environment and economy were consistent predictors of support across most energy types, while political ideology was less consistent. Perceived local importance of both extractive and renewable energy industries were significant predictors of support for some, but not all, energy sources, as were education and gender. Overall, our research suggests that while divisions persist in public energy preferences for both renewable and non-renewable sources, there is the broadest support for renewable energy technologies.

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“…Rather, their preferences toward these sources are based on their views that wind is cleaner and less expensive than coal. Research has further demonstrated that this structure of public opinion toward energy—that is, that people’s attitudes are shaped by their perceptions of the energy resources’ attributes—extends to energy siting [15] and policy preferences [15, 39, 40, 41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are all electrons the same? Evaluating support for local transmission lines through an experiment

2019

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A crucial factor in U.S. energy infrastructure development is the degree to which citizens that reside near a development support or oppose the project. While the literature offers several explanations about what shapes individuals’ perceptions of energy projects, few have considered the importance of cognitive heuristics and the law of contagion. Here, we employ a survey experiment on a nationally-representative sample of 2,000 respondents to test whether knowing which energy resources connect to a high-voltage transmission line dictate support for the line. Results reveal that information about the source of electricity is fundamentally important. If a transmission line is said to carry electricity from a solar and wind development, a respondent is significantly more likely to support development of the line. If the line instead is said to carry electricity from a natural gas or coal plant, respectively, respondents are significantly less likely to support it. This study has implications for energy infrastructure development, messaging, and public acceptance of energy projects.

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We choose what we like – Affect as a driver of electricity portfolio choice

Abstract: This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library We choose what we like-Affect as a driver of electricity portfolio choice

Cited by 20 publications

References 55 publications

Affect or information? Examining drivers of public preferences of future energy portfolios in Switzerland

Affect or information? Examining drivers of public preferences of future energy portfolios in Switzerland

Public Preferences in a Shifting Energy Future: Comparing Public Views of Eight Energy Sources in North America’s Pacific Northwest

Are all electrons the same? Evaluating support for local transmission lines through an experiment

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