Congrats to Team PONDER (Alisius Leong, Jiemin Looi, Liang Chen, Natalie Pang, and Edson Tandoc) for publishing our article “Science literacy or value predisposition? A meta-analysis of factors predicting public perceptions of benefits, risks, and acceptance of nuclear energy” in Environmental Communication!
Here’s the abstract:
Nuclear energy is widely regarded as a controversial technology that polarizes public opinion. Guided by the scientific literacy and cognitive miser models, this study systematically identified and examined the magnitude of the effects of 19 predictors on public perception of benefits, risks, and acceptance of nuclear energy. We meta-analyzed 34 empirical studies, representing a total sample of 32,938 participants and 129 independent correlations. The findings demonstrated that trust majorly affected public perceptions of benefits regarding nuclear energy. Gender, education, public perception of benefits regarding nuclear energy, trust, and public deliberation substantially influenced public perception of risks regarding nuclear energy. Moreover, gender, education, public perceptions of benefits, risks and costs regarding nuclear energy, knowledge and trust majorly affected public acceptance for nuclear energy. Country of sample and time period of data collection moderated public perceptions of benefits, risks and acceptance of nuclear energy. Implications for future research were discussed.