Implicit attitudes toward nuclear power and mobile phone base stations: support for the affect heuristic

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Risk Perception
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures automatic associations.
• Understanding implicit attitudes toward technological hazards is crucial for effective risk communication.
• Previous research has primarily focused on explicit measures of risk perception.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt the IAT for measuring implicit attitudes toward technological hazards.
• To investigate implicit and explicit attitudes toward nuclear power.
• To examine implicit attitudes toward electro-magnetic field (EMF) hazards.

Main Methods:

• Study 1: Employed the IAT and a questionnaire to assess implicit and explicit attitudes toward nuclear power.
• Study 2: Utilized the IAT to examine implicit attitudes toward EMF hazards from sources like cell phone base stations and power lines.
• Compared implicit attitudes between experts and lay people.

Main Results:

• Implicit measures detected negative attitudes toward nuclear power not revealed by explicit measures.
• Cell phone base stations and power lines were perceived as similarly risky.
• Base stations were more strongly associated with risk concepts than home appliances.
• No significant differences in implicit attitudes were found between experts and lay people.

Conclusions:

• The IAT is effective in uncovering implicit attitudes toward technological hazards.
• Affective responses play a significant role in the perception of technological risks, aligning with the affect heuristic.
• Implicit attitudes, driven by affect, are a key component of risk perception that warrants further investigation.