Abstract
Hundreds of surveys have sampled public preferences for different energy sources and associated perceptions. Far fewer polls have focused on waste management. The foundation for in-depth investigations rests on five sets of respondent attributes: (1) concern about the options, marked especially by strong feelings and emotions; (2) trust of responsible parties; (3) demographic characteristics, including race/ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status; (4) culture and worldviews; and (5) personal history, including familiarity with sites and benefits associated with living near sites. The better studies show variation over time and place in support for nuclear and other energy sources and waste management policies. European surveys, for instance, show fascinating differences among adjacent countries that appear to parallel national energy policies. Initial reports show that the Fukushima nuclear-related events have caused a decrease in public support for nuclear energy that is also associated with decreasing trust of those responsible for managing waste sites.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Alhakami A, Slovic P (1994) A psychological study of the inverse relationship between perceived risk and proceeds benefit. Risk Anal 14:1085–1096
Ansolabehere S (2007) Public attitudes toward America’s energy options: insights for nuclear energy. MIT-NES-TR-08
Ansolabehere S, Konisky D (2009) Public attitudes toward construction of new power plants. Public Opin Quart 73:566–577
Berry L, Jones A, Powers T (1999) Media interaction with the public in emergency situations: four case studies. Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Bisconti AS (2007) Perspective on public opinion (December 2007). A report prepared for the National Energy Institute. Retrieved September 18, 2009 from http://nei.org
Bisconti AS (2008) Perspective on public opinion (November 2008). A report prepared for the National Energy Institute. Retrieved September 18, 2009 from http://nei.org
Bisconti A S (2009). Perspective on public opinion (June 2009). A report prepared for the National Energy Institute. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from http://nei.org/resourcesandstats/documentlibrary/publications/perspectiveonpublicopinion/june2009/
Bisconti A S (2010a) Perspective on public opinion (June 2010). A report prepared for the Nuclear Energy Institute. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from http://nei.org/resourcesandstats/documentlibrary/publications/perspectiveonpublicopinion/perspective-on-public-opinion-june-2010/
Bisconti AS (2010b) Public opinion snapshot (Winter, 2010). A report prepared for the Nuclear Energy Institute. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from http://nei.org/resourcesandstats/documentlibrary/publications/perspectiveonpublicopinion/winter-2010/
Bisconti Research Inc. (2011) National questionnaire for nuclear plant neighbor survey. June. http://www.bisconti.com. Accessed September 20, 2011
Bronfman N, Cifuentes L (2003) Risk perception in a developing country: the case of Chile. Risk Anal 23:171–185
Cha YJ (2000) Risk perception in Korea: a comparison with Japan and the United States. J Risk Res 3:321–332
Corner A, Venables D, Spence A, Poortinga W, Demski C, Pidgeon N (2011) Nuclear power, climate change and energy security: exploring British public attitudes. Energy Pol 39:4823–4833
Dickert S, Slovic P (2009) Attentional mechanisms in the generation of sympathy. Judge Dec Mak 4:297–306
Douglas M (1970) Natural symbols: explorations in cosmology. Barrie & Rockliff, London
Earle TC (2010) Trust in risk management: a model-based review of empirical research. Risk Anal 30:541–574
Earle T, Cvetkovich G (1995) Social trust, towards a cosmopolitan society. Praeger, London
Eiser JR, Spears R, Webley P (1989) Nuclear attitudes before and after Chernobyl: change and judgment. J Appl Soc Psychol 19:689–700
European Commission (2005) Radioactive Waste. Brussels: TNS Opinion & Social Report No.: Special Eurobarometer 227
European Commission (2006) Energy Technologies. Brussels: TNS Opinion & Social Report No.: EUR22396
European Commission (2008) Attitudes toward radioactive waste. brussels: TNS Opinion & Social Report No.: Special Eurobarometer 297
European Commission (2010) Europeans and nuclear safety. Brussels: TNS Opinion & Social Report No.: Special Eurobarometer 324
Finucane M, Alhakami A, Slovic P, Johnson S (2000a) The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits. J Behav Dec Mak 13:1–17
Finucane M, Slovic P, Mertz CK, Satterfield T (2000b) Gender, race, and perceived risk: the ‘White Male’ affect. Health, Risk & Society 14:159–172
Finucane M, Slovic P, Mertz CK (2000c) Public perception of the risk of blood transfusion. Transfusion 40:1017–1022
Flynn J, Slovic P, Mertz CK (1994) Gender, race, and perception of environmental health risks. Risk Anal 14:1101–1108
Gallup (2011a) Majority of Americans say nuclear power plants in the U.S. are safe. http://www.gallup.com/poll/146939. Accessed September 23, 2011
Gallup (2011b) US support for nuclear power climbs to new high of 62 %. http://www.gallup.com/poll/126827. Accessed September 23, 2011
General Public Utilities Corporation (1979) The TMI 2 Story. www.threemileisland.org/dowjones/225.pdf. Accessed September 28, 2011
Greenberg M (2005) Concern about environmental pollution: how much difference do race and ethnicity make? a New Jersey case study. Environ Health Perspect 113:369–374
Greenberg M (2009a) NIMBY, CLAMP and the location of new nuclear-related facilities: U.S. National and eleven site-specific surveys. Risk Anal 29:1242–1254
Greenberg M (2009b) Energy sources, public policy, and public preferences: analysis of US national and site-specific data. Energy Policy 37:3242–3249
Greenberg M (2012) Comment: the affect heuristic, correspondence analysis, and understanding LULUs. Risk Anal 32:478–80
Greenberg M, Schneider D (1995) Gender differences in risk perception: effects differ in stressed vs. non-stressed environments. Risk Anal 15:503–511
Greenberg M, Truelove H (2010) Energy choices and perceived risks: Is it just global warming and fear of a nuclear power plant accident? Risk Anal 32:819–831
Greenberg M, Lowrie K, Krueckeberg D, Mayer H, Simon D (1997) Bombs and butterflies: a case study of the challenges of post cold-war environmental planning and management for the United States’ nuclear weapons sites. J Environ Plann Manage 40:739–750
Greenberg M, Popper F, Truelove H (2012) Are LULUs Still Enduringly Objectionable? Environ Plann Manage 55(6):713–731
Gross J, Rayner S (1985) Measuring culture: a paradigm for the analysis of social organization. Columbia University Press, New York
Harris Poll Interactive (2011) Harris Poll about nuclear power. http://www.se-ygn.org/2011/03/31. Accessed March 23, 2011
Hsee C (1996) Elastic justification: how unjustifiable factors influence judgments. Organ Behav Human Dec Process 66:122–129
Hsee C, Kunreuther H (2000) The affection effect and insurance decisions. J Risk Uncertain 20:141–159
Ipsos (2011) Global citizen reaction to the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. PowerPoint presentation. http://www.ipsos-mori.com/rsearchpublciations/rsearcharchive/2817. Accessed September 29, 2011
Jenkins-Smith H, Silva C, Nowlin M, deLozier G (2011) Reversing nuclear opposition: evolving public acceptance of a permanent nuclear waste disposal facility. Risk Anal 31:629–644
Jones J (2011) Disaster in Japan raises nuclear concerns in U.S. http://www.gallup.com/poll/146660. Accessed September 23, 2011.
Kahan D, Braman D, Gastil J, Slovic P, Mertz CK (2007) Culture and identity-protective cognition: explaining the white-male effect in risk perception. J Empirical Legal Stud 4:465–505
Keller C, Visschers V, Siegrist M (2012) Affective imagery and acceptance of replacing nuclear power plants. Risk Anal 32:464–477
Knight A (2007) Intervening effects of knowledge, morality, trust and benefits on support for animal and plant biotechnology applications. Risk Anal 27:1553–1563
Koren G, Klein N (1991) Bias against negative studies in newspaper reports of medical research. J Am Med Assoc 266:1824–1826
Kunreuther H, Easterling H, Desvousges W, Slovic P (1990) Public attitudes toward citing a high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Risk Anal 10:469–484
Lindell M, Perry R (1990) Effects of the Chernobyl accident on public perceptions of nuclear plant accident risks. Risk Anal 10:393–399
Macfarlane M, Ewing R (eds) (2006) Uncertainty underground: yucca mountain and the Nations High-Level Nuclear Waste. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Nye J, Zelikow P, King D (1997) Why people don’t trust government. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Olofsson A, Rashid S (2011) The white (male) effect and risk perception: can equality make a difference? Risk Anal 31:1016–1032
Parkhill K, Pidgeon N, Henwood N, Simmons P, Venables D (2010) From the familiar to the extraordinary: local residents’ perception of risk when living with nuclear power in the UK. Transact Inst Br Geogr 35:39–58
Parkhill K, Henwood N, Pidgeon N, Simmons P (2011) Humour, affect and emotion work in communities living with nuclear risk? Br J Sociol 62:324–346
Peters E, Slovic P (1996) The role of affect and worldviews as orienting dispositions in the perception and acceptance of nuclear power. J Appl Soc Psychol 26:1427–1453
Pew Research Center (1998) Deconstructing distrust: Americans view government. Pew Research Center, Washington DC
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (2011a) Opposition to nuclear power rises amid Japanese crisis. Http://People-press.org/2011/03/21. Accessed September 19, 2011
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (2011b) Japanese resilient, but see economic challenges ahead. Http://People-press.org/2011/06/01. Accessed September 19, 2011
Pidgeon N, Lorenzoni I, Poortinga W (2008) Climate change or nuclear power–no thanks! A quantitative study of public perceptions and risk framing in Britain. Global Environ Change 18:69–85
Poortinga W, Pidgeon N (2003) Exploring the dimensionality of trust in risk regulation. Risk Anal 23:961–972
Rayner S (1992) Cultural theory and risk analysis. In: Kirmsky S, Goldin D (eds) Social theories of risk. Praeger, Westport, CT, p 83
Renn O (1990) Public responses to the Chernobyl accident. J Environ Psychol 19:151–167
Rivers L, Arvai J, Slovic P (2010) Beyond a simple case of black and white: searching for the white male effect in the African-American community. Risk Anal 30:65–77
Rosa E, Dunlap R (1994) The polls-poll trends, nuclear power: three decades of public opinion. Publ Opin Quart 58:295–325
Roth S, Hirschberg S, Bauer C et al (2009) Sustainability of electricity supply technology portfolio. Ann Nucl Energy 36:409–416
Salvadori L, Savio S, Nicotra E, Rumiati R, Finucane M, Slovic P (2004) Expert and public perception of risk from biotechnology. Risk Anal 24:1289–1299
Siegrist M (2010) Trust and confidence: the difficulties in distinguishing the two concepts in research. Risk Anal 30:1022–1024
Siegrist M, Cvetkovich G (2000) Perception of hazards: the role of social trust and knowledge. Risk Anal 20:713–719
Siegrist M, Cvetkovich G (2001) Better negative than positive? Evidence of a bias for negative information about possible health dangers. Risk Anal 21:199–206
Siegrist M, Cvetkovich G, Roth C (2000) Salient value similarity, social trust, and risk/benefit perception. Risk Anal 20:353–362
Sjoberg L (2002) Limits of knowledge and the limited importance of trust. Risk Anal 21:189–98
Sjöberg L (2003) Risk perception is not what it seems: the psychometric paradigm revisited. In: Andersson K (ed) VALDOR Conference 2003. VALDOR, Stockholm, pp 14–29
Skowronski J, Carlston D (1989) Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation: a review of explanations. Psychol Bull 105:131–142
Slovic P (1987) Perception of risk. Science 236:280–285
Slovic P (2001) Cigarette smokers: rational actors or rational fools? In: Slovic P (ed) Smoking: risk, perception and policy. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp 97–124
Slovic P, Finucane M, Peters E, MacGregor D (2004) Risk as analysis and risk as feelings: some thoughts about affect, reason, risk, and rationality. Risk Anal 24:311–322
Slovic P, Peters E, Grana J, Berger S, Dieck GS (2007) Risk perception of prescription drugs: results of a national survey. Drug Inform J 41:81–100
Small D, Loewenstein G (2003) Helping the victim or helping a victim: altruism and identifiability. J Risk Uncertain 26:5–16
Stern P (2000) Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. the ‘White Male’ effect. Health, Risk & Society 2:159–172
Vandermoere F (2008) Hazard perception, risk perception, and the need for decontamination by residents exposed to soil pollution: the role of sustainability and the limits of expert knowledge. Risk Anal 28:387–398
Vastfjall C, Peters C, Slovic P (2008) Affect, risk perception and future optimism after the tsunami disaster. Judge Dec Mak 3:64–72
Verplanken B (1989) Beliefs, attitudes, and intentions toward nuclear energy before and after Chernobyl and a longitudinal within-subjects design. Environ Behav 21:371–392
Visschers VHM, Keller C, Siegrist M (2011) Climate change benefits and energy supply benefits as determinants of acceptance of nuclear power stations: investigating an explanatory model. Energy Policy 39:3621–3629
Visschers VHM, Siegrist M (2012) How a nuclear power plant accident influences acceptance: results of a longitudinal study before and after the Fukushima disaster. Risk Anal
Weart S (1992) Fears, fantasies and fallout. New Scientist 136:34–37
Xie X, Wang M, Xu L (2003) What risks are Chinese people concerned about? Risk Anal 23:685–695
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag London
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Greenberg, M.R. (2013). Public Stakeholders: What We Know and Expect. In: Nuclear Waste Management, Nuclear Power, and Energy Choices. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 2. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4231-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4231-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4230-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4231-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)