Groot, Hilbert de (2025) When transparent communication backfires: The role of ambiguous environmental impacts, techno-optimism and ambivalence on attitudes towards greenhouse horticulture. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
To sustainably feed a growing population in a changing climate, both agro-ecological and technological innovations are needed. While agro-ecological methods are generally well-received, public support for more technological solutions, such as greenhouse horticulture (GH), is less certain. To improve public support in the Netherlands, the GH-sector is considering a transparent communication campaign, which will likely include communicating its mixed environmental impact. However, such ambiguous information may evoke ambivalence in the public, an uncomfortable feeling which might lower support for GH. Importantly, this effect may vary across individuals. Here, I propose that the belief that technological advances can address sustainability issues (techno-optimism) changes people’s reaction to ambiguous information. Specifically, I expect people with strong (and weak) techno-optimism beliefs might fall back on their pre-existing attitudes in the face of ambivalence, and thus express higher (and lower) support for GH. In a between-subjects experiment with a representative Dutch sample, techno-optimism indeed moderated the relationship between felt ambivalence and attitudes: the negative effects of ambivalence on attitudes towards GH were buffered for high techno-optimism, and amplified for low techno-optimism. As ambivalence increased, techno-optimists thus remained supportive, while skeptics became increasingly more opposed, leading to attitudinal polarization.While providing information did not increase felt ambivalence directly, it did so via potential ambivalence. The main findings of this study suggest that transparent but ambiguous communication may polarize rather than persuade.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Mlakar, Z. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Jul 2025 09:04 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Jul 2025 09:05 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5766 |
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