Effects of Psychological Distance on Nuclear Risk Perceptions

Recently, the Not- In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) events about the construction of nuclear facilities happened in China, which impeded the development of nuclear energy. The distance is undoubtedly an important factor affecting public nuclear power risk perceptions. In previous research, the empirical studies on how distance influenced risk perceptions had come to different conclusions. Further exploration of its causes is of great significance to energy policy. Based on the psychological distance theory, this paper divided distance into the four dimensions: spatial distance, social distance, temporal distance and hypotheticality to explore the effects of psychological distance on risk perceptions. An empirical study was conducted and a total of 1001 samples including site- specific samples (N=184) and national samples (N=817) were collected for the survey. The results showed that the site-specific samples’risk perceptions were significantly lower than the national samples’risk perceptions, temporal distance, social distance and hypotheticality had a significant and negative impact on risk perceptions.