Social acceptance of science and technology accompanying risks has become a complex and difficult decision-making problem as new participants including environmental organizations, civic groups and residents emerged. As social consensus has become so crucial, not only expert’s technical judgment but...
Social acceptance of science and technology accompanying risks has become a complex and difficult decision-making problem as new participants including environmental organizations, civic groups and residents emerged. As social consensus has become so crucial, not only expert’s technical judgment but also understanding of the public's risk perception is being emphasized.
However, prior research focused on subjective perception cannot fully explain the individual differences formed from personal experiences which shape our current perception. Accordingly, to understand social behaviors, scholars have stressed the need for a new approach to sufficiently reflect psychological and motivational characteristics of individuals which are more fundamental than the risk perception(Sjöberg, 2000; Lazarus, 1984; Bandura, 1987). In other words, a comprehensive study of the internal processes leading to behavior from the perspective of psychological components of attitudes is on demand.
The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the causal pathway from the attitudes toward risks of science and technology that leads to behavioral intention. To this end, based on the Fishbein & Ajzen(1975)’s Theory of Reasoned Action(TRA), behavior intention to support nuclear power was used as a dependent variable. In this study, individual attitudes were composed of cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors according to the Rosenberg & Hovland(1960)’s Tri-component attitude model. Research topic 1 applied research model based on the Poortinga & Pidgeon (2006)’s Causal model of trust and the Earle & Siegrist(2008)’s Trust, Confidence and Cooperation model(TCC). The cognitive pathways from policy satisfaction to behavioral intentions through government trust(general trust, skepticism), trust in risk regulation, and perceived risk were analyzed. Research topic 2 used an extended TRA model with the adoption of Finucane et al.(2000)’s Affective heuristics. The effects of affective factor(positive affect and negative affect) and behavioral factor(personal norm and subjective norm) on behavioral intentions through perceived risk were analyzed. A total of 457 survey results collected through an online survey were used and verified with the Structural Equation Modeling(SEM). Key findings are as follows.
First, the causal pathway from policy satisfaction to behavior intention was empirically verified. Second, trust in risk regulation and perceived risk play a mediating role in the path from government trust to behavior intention. Third, positive affect, directly and indirectly, had a significant effect on behavioral intentions and verified the causal pathway from positive affect to behavior intention through perceived risk. Fourth, subjective norms had a positive effect on behavioral intentions, either directly or indirectly. Fifth, perceived risk plays a mediating role in the path from both affect and norms to behavioral intention. The result underscores the necessity of making efforts to reflect individual psychological and social factors in policy that society members value.
As a comprehensive conclusion of this study, behavioral intention for risk acceptance of science and technology is affected by individual attitudes before subjective perception. Therefore, to understand the root cause for the social behavior, it is necessary to pay attention to both attitude formation and the cognitive process and consider an individual's social and psychological factors along with perception factors. Also, the result affirms the importance of risk communication to secure government trust directly or indirectly relevent to social behavior. Theoretical and practical implications with limitations and possibilities for improvements for future studies are discussed.
Social acceptance of science and technology accompanying risks has become a complex and difficult decision-making problem as new participants including environmental organizations, civic groups and residents emerged. As social consensus has become so crucial, not only expert’s technical judgment but also understanding of the public's risk perception is being emphasized.
However, prior research focused on subjective perception cannot fully explain the individual differences formed from personal experiences which shape our current perception. Accordingly, to understand social behaviors, scholars have stressed the need for a new approach to sufficiently reflect psychological and motivational characteristics of individuals which are more fundamental than the risk perception(Sjöberg, 2000; Lazarus, 1984; Bandura, 1987). In other words, a comprehensive study of the internal processes leading to behavior from the perspective of psychological components of attitudes is on demand.
The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the causal pathway from the attitudes toward risks of science and technology that leads to behavioral intention. To this end, based on the Fishbein & Ajzen(1975)’s Theory of Reasoned Action(TRA), behavior intention to support nuclear power was used as a dependent variable. In this study, individual attitudes were composed of cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors according to the Rosenberg & Hovland(1960)’s Tri-component attitude model. Research topic 1 applied research model based on the Poortinga & Pidgeon (2006)’s Causal model of trust and the Earle & Siegrist(2008)’s Trust, Confidence and Cooperation model(TCC). The cognitive pathways from policy satisfaction to behavioral intentions through government trust(general trust, skepticism), trust in risk regulation, and perceived risk were analyzed. Research topic 2 used an extended TRA model with the adoption of Finucane et al.(2000)’s Affective heuristics. The effects of affective factor(positive affect and negative affect) and behavioral factor(personal norm and subjective norm) on behavioral intentions through perceived risk were analyzed. A total of 457 survey results collected through an online survey were used and verified with the Structural Equation Modeling(SEM). Key findings are as follows.
First, the causal pathway from policy satisfaction to behavior intention was empirically verified. Second, trust in risk regulation and perceived risk play a mediating role in the path from government trust to behavior intention. Third, positive affect, directly and indirectly, had a significant effect on behavioral intentions and verified the causal pathway from positive affect to behavior intention through perceived risk. Fourth, subjective norms had a positive effect on behavioral intentions, either directly or indirectly. Fifth, perceived risk plays a mediating role in the path from both affect and norms to behavioral intention. The result underscores the necessity of making efforts to reflect individual psychological and social factors in policy that society members value.
As a comprehensive conclusion of this study, behavioral intention for risk acceptance of science and technology is affected by individual attitudes before subjective perception. Therefore, to understand the root cause for the social behavior, it is necessary to pay attention to both attitude formation and the cognitive process and consider an individual's social and psychological factors along with perception factors. Also, the result affirms the importance of risk communication to secure government trust directly or indirectly relevent to social behavior. Theoretical and practical implications with limitations and possibilities for improvements for future studies are discussed.
주제어
#감정 휴리스틱 정부 신뢰 신뢰, 확신, 협력 모형 위험 인식 합리적 행동이론
※ AI-Helper는 부적절한 답변을 할 수 있습니다.