Zinkevičiūtė, Gintarė (2022) Willingness to participate in the decision-making about renewable energy projects: the role of a temporal distance of impacts, perceived losses/gains and values. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Public participation plays an essential role in ensuring public acceptability of energy transition. Yet, there has been little discussion on factors affecting people’s willingness to participate in decision-making, especially at an early stage. To address this gap, this study explored whether and how the three factors: temporal distance (recent impacts versus distant impacts), gains/losses (gains versus losses) and values, affect people’s willingness to participate in decision-making about renewable energy projects from an early stage. To test the hypotheses, a 2x2 between-subjects experimental study was conducted in Lithuania (n = 165). Contrary to expectations, results indicated that neither providing information on recent rather than distant impacts nor emphasising losses rather than gains on people’s life and living environment did not increase people’s willingness to participate in the decision-making at an early stage. Furthermore, no statistically significant interaction was found between the effects of temporal distance and gains and losses. Interestingly, the analysis revealed that the effect on willingness to participate in the decision-making at an early stage might depend on which value people strongly hold. More specifically, for people with stronger biospheric and altruistic values, emphasising the distant rather than recent impacts of sustainable energy transition can be more effective. Also, for people with stronger egoistic values, highlighting the losses compared to gains can increase their willingness to participate in decision-making at an early stage. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications for increasing people’s willingness to participate in decision-making at an early stage. Keywords: public participation, temporal distance, gains, losses, willingness to participate in the decision-making, values
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Liu, L. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Feb 2022 15:08 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Feb 2022 15:08 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/129 |
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