INNOVATIONS’ ACCEPTANCE FOR REDUCING GLOBAL WARMING: INFLUENCES ON PUBLIC OPINION WHEN SOCIAL TRUST IS LOW

The paper presents the factors which influenced the construction and the stability of public opinion in the Romanian space, while testing the public acceptance of innovative technologies for reducing global warming. The attitude of Romanian publics and the public acceptance in this matter are compared to the attitude of publics in other five European countries, highlighting social and cultural characteristics of the Romanian environment. The findings in the paper were collected in an ERA-NET research project developed during 2009-2010, in which the author of the paper had the function of country scientific coordinator. The methods used were the focus group discussion and the representative national survey. The comparison with results from the other five countries revealed distinct characteristics of the Romanian social climate. Finally, the paper emphasizes the characteristics of formation and evolution of public opinion in Romania, in view of future persuasion strategies addressed to publics for implementation of public policies.