The Influence of Specific Risk Perceptions on Public Policy Support: An Examination of Energy Policy Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • A great deal of research has been dedicated to understanding the relationship of public preferences to public policy. Much of this literature, though, does not account for risk perception, an important characteristic that affects individuals preferences. In terms of policy, those who perceive high risk in association with a particular issue should be more likely to oppose policies that would increase that risk, and, conversely, support policies that would decrease this risk. In this article, we examine the role of specific risk perceptions related to nuclear, coal, and renewable sources of energy on related policy preferences. Controlling for the influence of knowledge and several specific attitudinal indicators, we find that risk perceptions are strong predictors of energy policy preferences.

published proceedings

  • ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

altmetric score

  • 2.2

author list (cited authors)

  • Stoutenborough, J. W., Vedlitz, A., & Liu, X.

citation count

  • 35

complete list of authors

  • Stoutenborough, James W||Vedlitz, Arnold||Liu, Xinsheng

publication date

  • March 2015