Afraid, angry or powerless? Effects of perceived risks and trust in responsible parties on emotions towards gasquakes in the Netherlands. (June 2021) - Vrieling, Leonie
Highlights: Energy projects create externally controlled risks. The risks of energy projects elicit negative emotions in people. We distinguish consequence- and morality-based emotions and feelings of powerlessness. Negative emotions are stronger the more risks people perceive. Higher trust in responsible parties may reduce negative emotions. Abstract: Energy projects can pose serious risks that can elicit negative emotions in people, threatening their well-being and fueling public resistance. As energy projects are oftentimes controlled by governments and industry, people have to rely on responsible parties for preventing and reducing the risks. We introduced the TEAR model and examined to what extent trust in responsible parties, in addition to perceived risks, is related to people's negative emotions towards risks of energy projects. So far, the effects of risk perceptions and trust on emotions have been studied in isolation, which hinders the understanding of their unique effects on emotions. We tested in a longitudinal field survey to what extent perceived risks and trust in responsible parties relate to different types of negative emotions elicited by gas extraction and induced earthquakes, including consequence-based emotions (e.g. fear), morality-based emotions (e.g. anger) and feelings of powerlessness. The results consistently showed that the higher risks people perceived, the more they experienced all types of negative emotions. Trust in responsible parties was particularly strongly associated with morality-based emotions and feelings of powerlessness. The assumed relationships between the constructs in the TEAR model were generally stable across time, in spite of other ongoing developments, such as recurring earthquakes, increasingly heated public debates about the risks of gas extraction, and some prevention and mitigation measures taken by responsible parties.