Adapting communication to the public's intuitive understanding of CCS

Lasse Wallquist, Vivianne H. M. Visschers, Simone Dohle and Michael Siegrist

Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, 2011, vol. 1, issue 1, 83-91

Abstract: Public perceptions of the benefits and risks associated with carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) are important determinants of public acceptance and have a strong impact on the political feasibility of this technology. Communication material aimed at informing the general public about CCS should be tested to find out how it influences perceived risks and benefits. Existing literature shows that laypeople's intuitive concepts about technical functioning and value‐based socio‐economic concerns influence perceived risks and benefits. We conducted two experimental studies that built on previous research about lay concepts of CCS. The first experiment examined the impact of extensive information versus basic information; the second experiment examined the effect of specific information on perceived risks and benefits. The results show that the provision of comprehensive information aimed at resolving prevalent misconceptions about CCS can decrease perceived risk and increase perceived benefits. But the findings also show that some specific types of information can result in the perception of higher risks and lower benefits. We conclude that CCS communication for the general public needs to be adapted to laypeople's intuitive knowledge in associated fields. The present research provides some first indications of how specific information about CCS can affect the public. © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:greenh:v:1:y:2011:i:1:p:83-91

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology from Blackwell Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().