Year: 1980
Type: report
Abstract: This study reports the results of a further analysis of questionnaire data--parts of which have been previously reported by Lindell, Earle, Hebert and Perry (1978)--that are related to the issue of consistency of attitudes and behavior toward nuclear power and nuclear waste management. Three factors are considered that might be expected to have a significant bearing on attitude-action consistency: social support, attitude object importance and past activism. Analysis of the data indicated that pronuclear respondents were more likely to show consistency of attitudes and actions (66%) than were antinuclear respondents (51%) although the difference in proportions is not statistically significant. Further analyses showed a strong positive relation between attitude-action consistency and perceived social support, measured by the degree to which the respondent believed that close friends and work associated agreed with his attitude. This relationship held up even when controls for attitude object importance and past activism were introduced. Attitude object importance--the salience of the issue of energy shortage--had a statistically significant effect only when perceived social support was low. Past activism had no significant relation to attitude-action consistency. These data suggest that the level of active support for or opposition to nuclear technology will be affected by the distribution of favorable and unfavorable attitudes among residents of an area. Situations in which pro- and antinuclear attitudes are concentrated among members of interacting groups, rather than distributed randomly, are more likely to produce high levels of polarization.
DOI: 10.2172/7041007
Authors: M.K. Lindell, R.W. Perry, M. Greene
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Battelle
Awards: G7269881523, G850182582, G957704233
OpenAlex ID: W1573104262