Assignment
Climate change is a pressing concern, and one of the ways to address it is to implement sustainable energy projects, such as carbon capture and storage, wind parks, solar parks, and heat pumps. An important success factor of these projects is the public acceptance of and support for these technologies. Unfortunately, due to some (actual or perceived) negative aspects of the technology or those managing it, citizens living nearby or being involved in the project often object to the project, leading to a lower success rate of the project. It is therefore important to understand what exactly causes people to protest a sustainable energy project, and what leads to higher acceptance, such that managers of such projects can improve their projects and their communication about it.
In 2012, the sustainable energy technology acceptance model by Huijts, Steg and Molin was developed to explain the psychological antecedents of public acceptance of sustainable energy projects. The model has been widely applied and has been cited over 1000 times. With UK and Australian researchers, selection criteria have been developed, and studies are being selected that more actively engage with the model.
In this internship, you will aid in coding a part of the studies that have cited the 2012 paper, and do an analysis on a subgroup of the selected studies to learn how they build further on the original model. You will analyse how these studies have used the model, which changes and extensions to the model can be proposed based on their findings, and what research gaps in relation to how we understand the public acceptance of sustainable energy technologies.
You will be supervised by PCRS staff, in collaboration with researchers from the Technology Acceptance research group in Portsmouth, UK, and from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO.
This internship can lead to a master's thesis study, as the review will indicate interesting research gaps that you can formulate a thesis topic about.
KEYWORDS
Public acceptance; sustainability; risk perception; public opinion
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ORGANIZATION
The section Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety at the University of Twente has a distinctive and unique profile in the areas of risk perception and risk communication, conflict and crisis management and the antecedents of risky, antisocial and criminal behaviour. It currently includes 16 research staff members and 8 PhD students. We work from both a psychology and an engineering perspective and cooperate with other scientific disciplines, based on the “high tech, human touch” profile of the University of Twente.
AVAILABILITY
This internship is open to 1 student.
INTERESTED?
Please contact the PCRS internship coordinator Miriam Oostinga (m.s.d.oostinga@utwente.nl).
LITERATURE
- Huijts, N.M.A., Molin, E.J.E. & Steg, L. (2012). Psychological factors influencing sustainable energy technology acceptance: A review-based comprehensive framework. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16 (1), 525-531.
- Huijts, N.M.A., Molin, E.J.E & Van Wee, B. (2014). Hydrogen fuel station acceptance: a structural equation model based on the technology acceptance framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 38, 153-166.
- Bal, M., Stok, M., Bombaerts, G., Huijts, N.M.A., Schneider, P., Spahn, A., Buskens, V. (2023). A fairway to fairness: Toward a richer conceptualization of fairness perceptions for just energy transitions. Energy Research & Social Science, 103, 103213.