The future social-technical system (STS) of power supply based on renewables depends heavily upon the rapid emergence of Distributed Energy Systems (DES). The prime object of Social Acceptance ...processes of renewable energy innovation becomes the issue of how to incorporate DES. The realization of this transformation requires the escape from locked-in hierarchy and standardized design of the centralized grid. This review elaborates the advanced conceptualization of Social Acceptance, particularly its socio-political layer. High diffusion of DES in intelligent microgrids leads to polycentricity replacing hierarchy. Therefore, the main object of 'socio-political acceptance' concerns institutional changes replacing hierarchy by co-production within STSs applying DES. Renewables become 'common goods' in such systems, instead of 'private' or 'public' goods. Systems providing 'common goods' like renewables -that are natural resources-show similarities to socialecological systems, the self-governing entities in common pool resources theory. Application of this institutional theory to co-production in DES leads to the following conclusions on socio-political acceptance. Renewables generation, integration, storage, intelligence and demand response require a shift towards co-producing prosumers. Electricity as an economic good must be redefined from commercial private commodity delivered in a public grid towards a co-produced common good. Essential for common prosumer-based DES is the application of peer-to-peer deliverance (P2P). Policy must avoid to interfere in this and also should remove legal obstructions and transaction costs for P2P and coproduction. As space is the prime scarcity factor for DES, prosumers' communities should also be empowered in co-producing land use decisions for construction of their DES infrastructures.
•The definition of social acceptance of renewables innovation is updated, emphasizing its process character.•The acceptance object changes towards the integration of sources, storage and demand response in distributed energy systems.•Social-political acceptance has been analyzed based on Ostrom’s institutional theory of common pool resources.•Institutions should move away from centralized and hierarchical models towards polycentric prosumer-based models.•Crucial elements are electricity as a ‘common good’, coproduction, and peer-to-peer delivery.•Co-production concerns distributed energy system’s infrastructures, and allocation of space for such infrastructures.
•Consumers' lack of knowledge about solar energy, high rate of currency fluctuations, and lack of government support for the private sector are three barriers to the adoption of solar energy from the ...point of view of market representatives.•One of the most important factors of non-investment in Golestan province is the false and unscientific belief that Golestan province does not have the proper capacity to use solar energy due to its mild and humid climate.•Energy policymaking has rarely involved the social dimensions of changing energy systems in a conscious, explicit, and extensive manner, and most of the energy policy and planning in Iran is focused exclusively on technologies.
Iran is one of the largest holders of energy resources in the world and has always enjoyed a special international position in the world in terms of the amount of exports and the extent of available resources. However, the amount of energy consumption in recent years has become one of the most important concerns of the government, and in order to solve it, the government of the Republic of Iran has adopted two policies of reforming the consumption pattern and supplying energy through renewable energies, and specifically, developing the use of solar energy in has taken Meanwhile, various factors such as the market play an essential role in convincing people. Therefore, this research focuses on the social dimension of the issue of energy transfer, considering the human and social factors effective in the adoption of RE, and identifies the social barriers to the adoption of solar energy technologies in Iran (Golestan). This research has been conducted using a qualitative method based on interviews with private sector activists working in the solar energy development market to address the purpose of the research, which is to evaluate the obstacles to the establishment of solar energy technology in Iran from the perspective of market experts. The findings showed that consumers may perceive the need to use solar energy because of the problematic issues arising from the use of non-renewable energy. However, consumers' lack of awareness of solar energy, which is a solution to the problems caused by fossil fuel consumption, the high rate of currency fluctuations, and the government's lack of support for the private sector, are three factors that prevent the adoption of solar energy. Thus, the results of the present study have identified the obstacles to the development of low carbon economy in Iran through the adoption of solar energy. In this regard, all stakeholders including individuals, communities and governments will benefit from the benefits of RE. Since energy transfer studies are classified in one of the three main pillars of small consumer, policy maker or producer and distributor, this research was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of producer or distributor in order to identify the factors affecting it. In this context, it is necessary to examine two other pillars of discussion in future studies.
The success or failure of food technologies in society depends to a large extent on the public interest, concerns, images, and expectations surrounding them. This paper delves into the landscape of ...public attitudes towards gene-edited foods in Japan, exploring the reasons behind the acceptance or rejection of these products. A literature review and preliminary findings from a survey conducted in Japan in 2022, aim to identify key issues crucial for evaluating societal acceptance of gene-edited foods. The study showed that the public view gene-edited foods as somewhat unnatural, but upon closer examination, significant variation in attitudes was observed among respondents. Some respondents expressed a favorable perception towards gene-edited foods, particularly those that benefit consumers, while others expressed concerns about its perceived artificiality. Moreover, a significant number of respondents displayed indifference or lack of clear perspective regarding gene-edited foods. These findings reflect the complex relationship between public attitudes, naturalness, and social acceptance of gene-edited foods. Furthermore, the study indicates the importance of paying close attention to those who refrain from expressing their viewpoints in the survey. This nuanced landscape warrants further exploration.
Many topics that scientists investigate speak to people’s ideological worldviews. We report three studies—including an analysis of large-scale survey data—in which we systematically investigate the ...ideological antecedents of general faith in science and willingness to support science, as well as of science skepticism of climate change, vaccination, and genetic modification (GM). The main predictors are religiosity and political orientation, morality, and science understanding. Overall, science understanding is associated with vaccine and GM food acceptance, but not climate change acceptance. Importantly, different ideological predictors are related to the acceptance of different scientific findings. Political conservatism best predicts climate change skepticism. Religiosity, alongside moral purity concerns, best predicts vaccination skepticism. GM food skepticism is not fueled by religious or political ideology. Finally, religious conservatives consistently display a low faith in science and an unwillingness to support science. Thus, science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, depending on the topic of investigation.
Quest for significance theory (Kruglanski et al., 2013; Kruglanski, Jasko, Chernikova, Dugas, & Webber 2017) states that extreme behavior for an ideological cause is more likely under psychological ...conditions that induce a search for significance and social recognition. Two forms of motivation for significance have been identified; the quest for individual significance rooted in personal experiences and the quest for collective significance rooted in the perception that one's social group is humiliated and/or disrespected. Whereas past research has demonstrated associations between both forms of quest for significance and political extremism, there is little understanding of the conditions that moderate those effects. In the present study, we tested the moderating role of belonging to radical versus nonradical social context. Four studies were conducted in three different cultural settings: Sri Lanka (Study 1, n = 335), Morocco (Study 2, n = 260), and Indonesia (Study 3, n = 379 and Study 4, n = 334). Each study compared the responses from participants residing in social contexts that were more or less radical. Radical social contexts were identified based either on participants' belonging to known extremist organizations (Studies 1, 3, and 4) or residence within a locale that is a known hotbed for recruitment into terrorist organizations (Study 2). Across studies, we found evidence that radical social contexts strengthen the link between quest for significance-particularly collective significance-and support for political violence.
In 2017, the transportation sector in the European Union was responsible for 27% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, of which road transportation accounted for 71.7%. As a result of the EU policy ...to reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% in 2030 compared to 1990 levels, a social acceptance of a new technology like hydrogen in transportation is important. This study investigates the factors that may affect the public's acceptance of hydrogen-powered vehicles in Denmark. To this end, four major hypotheses were stated, assuming the direct effect of factors such as technology and environmental awareness, financial status and infrastructure pertaining to the social acceptance of hydrogen-based private road vehicles in the transportation market. The results showed that most of the hypotheses can be confirmed, including environmental awareness, limited refuelling infrastructure as well as media support for this market. These factors can be said to have an impact on one's willingness to accept or even purchase a fuel cell electric vehicle in the near future, while knowledge of and prior experience with this type of technology, along with an upgrade of the hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, may prove to contribute positively to ‘greener’ transportation.
•Social perspective on hydrogen-based transportation for private use.•Empirical study assessing potential social barriers of hydrogen vehicle technology.•Public's environmental awareness affects positively the hydrogen transport prospect.•Technology knowledge is a significant parameter towards green mobility.•Hydrogen vehicles capital cost reduction will enhance substantially the market.
Emergence of autonomous machines is a hotly debated topic in mass-media. However, previous research has not empirically investigated whether the perceived autonomy of robots affects their social ...acceptance. In this study we examined the impact of perceived robot autonomy on realistic threats (threats to human jobs, resources and safety) and identity threats (threats to human identity and distinctiveness), attitude toward robots, and support for robotics research. US based participants watched a video of robots performing various tasks – these robots were presented as either autonomous and capable of disregarding human commands or non-autonomous and only capable of following human commands. Participants who watched videos of supposedly autonomous robots perceived robots in general to be significantly more threatening to humans (both realistic and identity threats) than those who watched a video of non-autonomous robots. Furthermore, exposure to autonomous robots evoked stronger negative attitude towards robots in general and more opposition to robotics research than exposure to non-autonomous robots. Both realistic and identity threats mediated the increase in negative attitudes toward robots and opposition to robotics research, although realistic threats were often the stronger mediator of the two. Our findings have practical implications for research on AI and open new questions on the relationship between robot autonomy and their social impact.
•We study the effects of perceived autonomy of robots on their social acceptance.•Autonomous robots invoke negative attitudes toward robots.•Autonomous robots increase opposition to robotics research.•Identity and realistic threats mediate negative attitude toward robots.•Identity and realistic threats mediate opposition to robotics research.
There is a worryingly large chasm between scientific consensus and popular opinion. Roughly one third of Americans are skeptical that humans are primarily responsible for climate change; rates of ...some infectious diseases are climbing in the face of anti-immunization beliefs; and significant numbers of the population worldwide are antievolution creationists. It is easy to assume that resistance to an evidence-based message is a result of ignorance or failure to grasp evidence (the "deficit model" of science communication). But increasingly, theorists understand there are limits to this approach, and that if people are motivated to reject science, then repeating evidence will have little impact. In an effort to create a transtheoretical language for describing these underlying motivations, we introduce the notion of "attitude roots." Attitude roots are the underlying fears, ideologies, worldviews, and identity needs that sustain and motivate specific "surface" attitudes like climate skepticism and creationism. It is the antiscience attitude that people hear and see, but it is the attitude root-what lies under the surface-that allows the surface attitudes to survive even when they are challenged by evidence. We group these attitude roots within 6 themes-worldviews, conspiratorial ideation, vested interests, personal identity expression, social identity needs, and fears and phobias-and review literature relevant to them. We then use these insights to develop a "jiu jitsu" model of persuasion that places emphasis on creating change by aligning with (rather than competing with) these attitude roots.
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