Regional diversity, people's cultural and development values shape perceptions of energy risks and benefits in India

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides cross-cultural evidence on how values shape energy risk perception, offering a counterpoint to Western-centric models.

🏢実務担当者:Insights for energy companies and communicators on tailoring messages to diverse cultural and value groups.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights need for region-specific and culturally sensitive energy transition strategies, especially in developing countries.

Abstract India’s energy transition is critical to reducing global carbon emissions. While all sources of energy, including fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewables, are important in government plans to meet growing energy demand, little is known about how the diverse Indian public perceives the risks and benefits associated with energy technologies, including nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, coal, oil, and gas. Utilising data from a multi-state survey, our analysis reveals that nuclear energy is perceived as the riskiest among the options, while its perceived benefits are more closely aligned with those of fossil fuels and are rated lower than those of renewables. These patterns broadly resemble those observed in European and United States (US) surveys. However, we find substantial subnational variation, which demonstrates the need to incorporate India's social and cultural diversity into energy policy and technology assessments. Our results on the drivers of energy risk perception diverge markedly from studies conducted in the US and Europe. Individuals with strong egalitarian values perceive greater benefits across energy technologies (including nuclear), contradicting findings from Europe and the United States, where egalitarianism typically corresponds to higher perceived risk and lower perceived benefit. Similarly, high communitarian values are associated with higher perceived benefit from nuclear and coal, a pattern not observed in the Global North. We also find that perceptions of energy technologies are associated with contrasting value orientations. Those who place greater weight on socio-environmental impacts tend to perceive greater risks across energy technologies, especially coal. In contrast, those with a more nationalist development orientation, emphasizing national development, pride, and jobs, tend to perceive greater benefits from solar and coal but not nuclear.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae74e4first seen 2026-06-19 04:38:09