| Anthropogenic climate change and energy shortage have become two urgent challenge in many nations.Adequate and affordable new energy is of paramount importance to ensure environmental protection and the well-being of mankind.Nuclear power has become an effective way of addressing environmental challenges and energy depletion.However,the concept of "Not-In-My-Backyard" has increased significantly because the potential accident risks that pose a tremendous threat to people,property,and ecosystems,which might result in failure of the social benefits of nuclear energy in many countries.Therefore,exploring the influencing factors of nuclear protective behavior for the promotion of nuclear energy policy and the implementation of nuclear power plant projects is of practical significance.Diversified information channels,pluralistic information contents,and complicated information demands are the typical characteristics of the Internet age.Many studies have proven the important role of information in individual psychological perception and behavior decision.However,empirical research on the relationship between information strategy and "Not-In-My-Backyard" in the nuclear situation is still rare.By focusing on the nuclear energy risk situation,this study explores the influencing mechanism and boundary conditions of information communication in nuclear "Not-In-My-Backyard" from four aspects:information identification,information processing,information sharing,and information feedback.It provides an important theoretical and practical basis for nuclear energy research and related policy regulations.The main findings are as follows:(1)The existence of a joint effect of different nuclear information on protective behavioral intention.The protective action decision model was adapted to construct a hypothetical model that tests the cross-combined effect of nuclear information on nuclear protective behavioral intention through psychological perception.The empirical results show that risk information is positively correlated with protective behavioral intention and that benefit information and technical information are negatively correlated with protective behavioral intention.The underlying mediating mechanism associated with psychological perception was uncovered.Specifically,risk perception plays an intermediary role between risk information and protective behavioral intention.Benefit perception serves as an intermediary role between benefit information and protective behavioral intention while technical information influences protective behavioral intention negatively through protective behavioral perception.Moreover,information saturation has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between psychological perception and protective behavioral intention.(2)The existence of the effect of information processing strategy on protective behavioral intention.The protective action decision model and the heuristic-systematic information processing model were integrated and adapted to construct a hypothetical model that emphasizes the important role of information processing strategies in the "Not-In-My-Backyard" phenomenon.The results empirically prove that risk perception and information demand are both central to predicting information seeking and protective behavioral intention.The results also suggest a partially mediating role of information processing between information seeking and protective behavioral intention.Moreover,different from heuristic processing,systematic processing is positively influenced by information seeking and has a negative influence on protective behavioral intention,but heuristic processing is negatively correlated with information seeking and positively correlated with protective behavioral intention.(3)The effect of psychological motivation on protective behavioral intention under information sharing.This paper explores a new mechanism that links information sharing strategy with individual behavior through a path of psychological motivation based on protective motivation theory.Evidence has shown that threat appraisal is positively related to the "Should" and "Need" motivations simultaneously,which in turn enhances protective behavioral intention.Coping appraisal has a positive effect on the protective behavioral intention though the“Should" motivation.The negative moderating effect of information acquisition on the relationship between"Need" motivation and protective behavioral intention is confirmed.The positive moderating effect of information supply on the relationship between "Should"motivation and protective behavioral intention requires high perceived insider status as a prerequisite.The moderating effect would be strengthened when perceived insider status is high.(4)The effect of key person information feedback on the decision-making process of group protective behavioral intention.A cross-level theoretical model and emergence theory were adapted to clarify the underlying mediating mechanism and boundary conditions of individual characteristics to group behavioral intention.The study suggests that group-blind has an intermediary role in the formation of protective behavioral intention.Specifically,individual cognitive ability has a negative effect on group protective behavioral intention through group-blind,and conformity pressure has a positive effect on group protective behavioral intention through group-blind.Information feedback from key figures moderates the relationship between group-blind and protective behavioral intention.The positive moderating effect of positive feedback based on government authoritarianism and the negative moderating effect of developmental feedback based on expert prestige are demonstrated.The study extends the entire process of information communication to the"Not-In-My-Backyard" in the nuclear situation,which is helpful in having a prompt understanding of the relationship between information,cognition,and behavior in science and technology risk situations.The theoretical contributions of the study are as follows:(1)This study gradually develops the entire chain of information communication,including information identification,processing,sharing,and feedback.Moreover,the important role of nuclear information in"Not-In-My-Backyard" is systematically expounded taking nuclear information as a"starting point" and protective behavioral intention as "terminal".(2)Nuclear technology information is considered a new independent variable,and the joint effect of different information provides some theoretical and policy implications for nuclear managers.The study also suggests that two strategies,systematic processing and heuristic processing,should be considered in the decision-making processing of protective behavior.Additionally,the "Need" and"Should" motivations are compared as independent variables in the same dimension,and the formation process of individual protective behavioral intention in a group environment is analyzed.Moreover,the emergence theory is introduced into the nuclear risk situation to explore the cross-level mechanism from individual psychology to group-blind and compare the different intervention mechanisms between government and experts.(3)The combination of objective information and subjective psychology and the combination of individual and group behaviors provide new insights into theoretical research and practical management. |
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