Research On The Influencing Factors Of Public Acceptance Of Nuclear Energy Based On Heuristic Systematic Model

Public Acceptance of Nuclear Energy(PANE)has become the most critical issue for sustainable development of nuclear energy in recent years.As a psychological attitude,PANE is significantly influenced by information.The development of the Internet and the emergence of social media have changed people's information sharing and acquisition radically,and people now obtain more information through network media.Some unverified nuclear-related information spreads rapidly across a large number of social media users,which eventually led to a change in public attitude towards nuclear energy and even hindered the progress of nuclear power development.The number of nuclear power plants under-construction in China ranks first in the world currently,and nuclear energy is an important part of its energy structure.Therefore,research on the relationship between information and PANE is particularly important for the sustainable development of nuclear power in Chinese context.Public will adopt different information processing ways to form their perception and attitude towards nuclear energy when receiving information.Heuristic Systematic Model(HSM)is a classical theory of information processing,which illustrates the relationship between the two types of information processing and emphasizes the important role of information processing in individual decision making.The process from receiving messages to forming attitude is influenced by factors such as information source,information channel,information content and audience.In recent years,some scholars have explored the relationship between information and risk perception,attitude formation and behavioral decision making but just focused on the single characteristic of information.However,there is little research on information processing.Therefore,the study established the research model of PANE based on HSM,and systematically explored the impact of individual internal factors and external information on PANE from the perspective of information processing in Chinese context.Firstly,the impact of individual internal factors such as nuclear interest and knowledge on information processing and PANE was examined,and the moderating role of information sufficiency was explored.Secondly,different clues and features of information were distinguished from the perspective of information processing,and the mechanism of different characteristics of information such as source credibility and information quality on PANE and the differences of attitude for people who used traditional media or network media were discussed.Finally,this study statistically analyzed the influencing factors of PANE based on the two studies above,and also offered relevant policy recommendations.The nationwide online survey was carried out in China,and empirical research models of PANE were established and verified based on the data.The main conclusions were drawn as follows:(1)Nuclear interest and knowledge were important factors in predicting information processing.Both heuristic processing and systematic processing had significant positive impacts on benefit perception.On the other hand,systematic processing had a significant negative impact on risk perception,but heuristic processing had no significant effect.Both benefit perception and knowledge positively influenced PANE,whereas risk perception had no significant effect.Finally,the decision making process of PANE varied depending on information sufficiency.(2)Source credibility indirectly affected PANE through benefit perception.Information quality could not only directly affect PANE,but also indirectly affect PANE through risk perception and benefit perception.Source reliability had a significant positive impact on information quality,which validated the bias effect of HSM.This indicated that the two information processing paths simultaneously existed in the process of PANE.Finally,the decision making process of PANE varied depending on information channels.(3)For the individual level,most people lacked nuclear-related information and knowledge but they were interested in nuclear issues.Compared with other renewable energy sources,public believed the risk of nuclear energy was relatively high.From the nuclear power risk characteristics,people seriously fretted about fatal disaster of nuclear power and the uncertainty of nuclear accident risk.For the information level,people preferred to trust nuclear experts.Network media was the most popularly used channel,but the printed media was the most trustworthy channel.Public believed that the information released by media was reliable,accurate,useful and positive.Finally,some policy recommendations were suggested from the knowledge,information sources,information channels and information content.This study expanded the application of HSM in the field of PANE,and explored public's psychological decision-making process of nuclear information processing and attitude of nuclear power in the Chinese context,which could provide reference for risk communication.