Nuclear Power: The Dynamics of Acceptability
Levi, D. J., & Holder, E. E. (1986). Nuclear power: The dynamics of acceptability. Environment and Behavior, 18, 3, 385-395.
175 psychology and 35 landscape architecture students completed a questionnaire concerning the construction of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant to test the hypotheses that antinuclear attitudes are a function of broader environmental concern and that antinuclear attitudes and behaviors are irrational and result from phobic thinking. The questionnaire assessed attitudes toward nuclear war, anxiety levels, environmental concern, and energy issues and nuclear power (NP). Results show that acceptance of NP plants correlated negatively with environmentalism and positively with belief in experts' evaluations of the safety of NP plants. Although environmentalism correlated with NP attitudes, these appeared to be separate issues. Environmentalism also correlated with other energy issues, such as energy conservation and burning coal. There was no significant relationship between NP attitudes and self-reported measures of anxiety about aging, dependency, and death. However, NP protesters had lower anxiety scores with regard to dependency issues. Findings are counter to the notion that NP opponents engage in irrational thinking and suffer from higher levels of anxiety. (16 ref)
