The role of negative associations and trust in risk perception of new hydrogen systems

Abstract

In this study the moderating role of trust and negative affective associations on the inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgements is investigated. A survey (N = 406) was held in the Netherlands on the public perception of new hydrogen systems, during the time that a demonstration project with hydrogen buses was being undertaken. The data of the survey show that for the group of respondents with a negative evaluation of trust in actors involved, an inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgements can be observed. Furthermore, for the group of respondents that had elicited negative affective spontaneous associations with hydrogen in general, the inverse relationship was also found. The inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgements was not observed in the group not making these spontaneous associations. The strongest negative correlation between risk and benefit judgements was found for those who had a negative evaluation of trust and had elicited negative affective spontaneous associations. In all cases the general affective evaluation of hydrogen systems was the mediating factor in this inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgements. These findings provide evidence for the moderating role of trust and negative affective associations on the observed inverse relationship between perceived benefit and perceived risk.

Keywords:

• trust
• affect
• associative processing
• hydrogen

Acknowledgements

The fruitful cooperation with Ruud Jonkers and Saskia Spapen from Rescon (Haarlem, the Netherlands) enabled the authors to conduct the survey with financial support from SenterNovem. Valuable comments by an anonymous reviewer helped the authors to considerably improve this paper.