University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2024 Oct 15;15(1):8888. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53278-2.
Misinformation campaigns target wind farms, but levels of agreement with this misinformation among the broader public are unclear. Across six nationally quota-based samples in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia (total N = 6008), over a quarter of respondents agree with half or more of contrarian claims about wind farms. Agreement with diverse claims is highly correlated, suggesting an underlying belief system directed at wind farm rejection. Consistent with this, agreement is best predicted (positively) by a conspiracist worldview (i.e., the general tendency to believe in conspiracy theories; explained variance ΔR² = 0.11-0.20) and (negatively) by a pro-ecological worldview (ΔR² = 0.04-0.13). Exploratory analyses show that agreement with contrarian claims is associated with lower support for pro-wind policies and greater intentions to protest against wind farms. We conclude that wind farm contrarianism is a mainstream phenomenon, rooted in people's worldviews and that poses a challenge for communicators and institutions committed to accelerating the energy transition.
虚假信息活动针对风力发电场，但广大公众对此类虚假信息的认同程度尚不清楚。在美国、英国和澳大利亚的六个基于全国配额的样本中（总计 N=6008），超过四分之一的受访者认同一半或更多有关风力发电场的反面说法。对不同说法的认同高度相关，表明存在一种针对风力发电场反对的潜在信仰体系。与这一观点一致的是，认同（正面）最好由阴谋论世界观（即普遍倾向于相信阴谋论；解释方差ΔR²=0.11-0.20）预测，（负面）由亲生态世界观预测（ΔR²=0.04-0.13）。探索性分析表明，对反面说法的认同与对支持风力发电政策的支持度降低以及对风力发电场抗议的意图增加有关。我们的结论是，风力发电场的反面意见是一种主流现象，植根于人们的世界观，这对致力于加速能源转型的传播者和机构构成了挑战。
