Nuclear power: The question of public acceptance

Technologists have been surprised—in view of the persuasive technical arguments—at the strength of public opposition to nuclear power. But their assumption that information and argument can, by their rational force, change public opinion on sensitive issues, rests on oversimplified theories about attitude formation. When the grounds for opposition to or approval of a controversial programme are investigated—as the authors of this article have done, on the issue of nuclear power—it becomes apparent that attitude formation is not, in the technologists' sense, a “rational” process. Here the authors describe an attitude model, and present the results of its application to the question of public attitudes to nuclear power—including the discovery of the relatively minor role that technical and environmental questions play in determining those attitudes.