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 against the project, leading to a lower successfulness 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 a 1000 times. In this internship you will develop a coding scheme and code the studies that have cited the 2012 paper. Depending on how much time is left, you will also perform an initial analyses based on the coding. You can describe how the model is applied in these papers and how the citing studies consolidated the model and/or suggested improvements to the model. This can be brought together into an improved description of the model and a list of research gaps. You will be supervised by PCRS staff, in collaboration with a researcher from the Technology Accpentace research group in Porthsmouth, UK.
Depending on the study setup and outcome, there is an opportunity to publish this research in an international peer-reviewed journal.
This internship can lead into a master 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 15 research staff members and 6 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 for 1 student.
INTERESTED?
Please contact the PCRS internship coordinator Miriam Oostinga (m.s.d.oostinga@utwente.nl).
LITERATURE
- 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.
- 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.