This research explores how a new concept, support for energy transition narratives, and other commonly applied social licence factors influence local acceptance of large-scale solar farms. Producing renewable electricity requires deploying more large-scale renewable technology infrastructure and support of host communities will be paramount. There is a dearth of studies that investigate a comprehensive set of social licence factors that influence local support of solar farms. Moreover, there is a lack of research considering how broader environmental worldview and beliefs about the energy transition influence local level support for renewable energy infrastructure. Survey data from a large, representative sample of the Australian population is analysed using a network modelling approach to identify conditional associations between variables of interest. Results reveal that general support for renewables in the energy transition had relatively strong direct and indirect associations with local acceptance in addition to social licence factors. Conversely, beliefs about the energy transition beyond the role for renewables (i.e., support for the role of natural gas, support for exporting fossil fuels and willingness to make trade-offs for a faster energy transition) had relatively weak effects on local acceptance and other social licence factors. The findings suggest that individual alignment with broader energy transition narratives explains local solar farm support beyond social licence factors. Future social licence research should consider the role of broader public narratives when investigating the factors that facilitate or impede local acceptance of renewable energy projects.

Developing a thriving hydrogen industry will depend on public and community support. Past research, mainly focusing on the acceptance of hydrogen fuelling stations and cars, suggests that people generally support hydrogen energy technology (HET). Few studies have, however, considered how people think about other components of the hydrogen supply chain (i.e., technologies required to make, store, transport and use hydrogen). Moreover, there has been limited research investigating how people interpret and develop beliefs about HET after being presented with technical information. This paper attempts to address these research gaps by presenting the findings from four face-to-face focus group discussions conducted in Australia. The findings suggest that people have differing views about HET, which depends on the type of technology, and these views influence levels of support. The study also revealed concerns about a range of other factors that have yet to be considered in hydrogen acceptance research (e.g., perceived water use, efficiency and indirect benefits). The findings highlight the value of qualitative research for identifying salient beliefs that shape attitudes towards HET and provide recommendations for future research and how to effectively communicate with the public and communities about an emerging hydrogen industry.

Developing a sucessful hydrogen industry, like any new energy industry, is dependent on public and community support. It has been consistently found that the successful development and implementation of any new energy technology depends on a range of contextual factors, as well as how people think about the technology. Research to date suggests that people generally like the idea of using hydrogen energy but do express some concerns, particularly around safety and costs. It is, however, relatively unclear from past research why people have different beliefs about hydrogen energy technologies and the extent to which these beliefs influence acceptance. In May 2022, a large representative sample (n=1878) of the Australian population were asked to share their thoughts about hydrogen energy technologies via an online survey. Informed by theory and past empirical research, the survey instrument assessed a range of psychological factors that tend to influence energy technology acceptance. The survey was also used to explore how people think about a range of different approaches to producing, storing, transporting and using hydrogen. Data were analysed using a network modelling approach to explore the conditional associations between a range of beliefs, psychological constructs (e.g., risk perception) and expressed acceptance of different hydrogen energy technologies. The results showed that people have a range of interconnected beliefs about hydrogen, which shapes their overall attitude. The findings also suggest that some core beliefs (e.g., thinking that hydrogen is ‘clean’) have a disproportionately high influence on people’s global evaluation of hydrogen compared to other, less influential, beliefs. Finally, it was found that those who expressed more support for a proposed local hydrogen hub tended to perceive more local and societal benefits, perceived less safety risks, and perceived less costs associated with hydrogen energy technologies.

The use of hydrogen energy and the associated technologies is expected to increase in the coming years. The success of hydrogen energy technology (HET) is, however, dependent on public acceptance of the technology. Developing this new industry in a socially responsible way will require an understanding of the psychology factors that may facilitate or impede its public acceptance. This paper reviews 27 quantitative studies that have explored the relationship between psychological factors and HET acceptance. The findings from the review suggest that the perceived effects of the technology (i.e., the perceived benefits, costs and risks), and the associated emotions, are strong drivers of HET acceptance. This paper does, though, highlight some limitations with past research that make it difficult to make strong conclusions about the factors that influence HET acceptance. The review also reveals that few studies have investigated acceptance of different types of HET beyond a couple of applications. The paper ends with a discussion about directions for future research and highlights some practical implications for messaging and policy.

Purpose This paper aims to understand how experience with the fringe effects of a cyclone influences perception of cyclone severity. Understanding how certain types of experience influences risk perception should help to clarify why there is an unclear link between experience and risk perception within the existing literature. Design/methodology/approach A total of 155 respondents with fringe cyclone experience were recruited to fill in a closed-ended question survey. The survey was designed to assess perceptions of a previous cyclone and future cyclone severity. Findings Most respondents who had experienced the fringe effects of a cyclone overestimated the wind speed in their location. Respondents who overestimated previous cyclone wind speed also predicted less damage from future Category 5 cyclones. Research limitations/implications This research indicates that overestimating the severity of past cyclones can have a detrimental effect on how people predict damage due to high category cyclones. Practical implications The findings suggest that people with fringe cyclone experience need additional information to help reshape their perceptions of cyclone severity. Originality/value This paper provides a unique perspective on the relationship between experience and risk perception by demonstrating that experience on the fringe of a cyclone has a negative influence on risk perception.

Purpose Cyclone preparedness activities can significantly reduce household-related property damage and the negative knock-on effects. Research has found, however, that many people do not perform these behaviours. It is, therefore, important to understand why some people do, and others do not, perform such behaviours. This paper aims to investigate whether a commonly applied psychological theory of behaviour change can explain cyclone-specific preparedness behaviour. Design/methodology/approach This study used a cross-sectional survey design to examine the relationship between demographic factors, cyclone experience, psychological factors and preparedness behaviour. Informed by the protection motivation theory (PMT), it was hypothesised that perceived efficacy, perceived cost and self-efficacy would be the strongest predictors of preparedness behaviour. Data from 356 respondents living in a cyclone-prone region were analysed using multiple regression and mediation analysis with the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Findings In support of the hypothesis, it was found that perceived efficacy and perceived cost were the strongest psychological predictors of preparedness behaviour. Contradicting the hypothesis, however, self-efficacy was not a significant predictor of preparedness behaviour. Subsequent analysis indicated that people who have experienced cyclone damage perceive that preparedness measures are more effective for reducing damage, which, in turn, increases preparedness behaviour. Originality/value This paper provides empirical support for the application of the protective motivation theory for explaining cyclone-specific preparedness behaviour. More specifically, the results indicate that people are more likely prepare for cyclones if they perceive that preparedness activities are effective for reducing damage and are relatively inexpensive and easy to perform. The findings suggest that to promote cyclone preparedness, risk communicators need to emphasise the efficacy of preparedness and downplay the costs.

Psychological theory suggests there is a positive association between risk perception and protective behavior. Empirical research has, however, found mixed support for the positive link between risk perception and protective behavior. One explanation for the inconsistent link is the way in which risk perception has been conceptualized and/or operationalized in past research. Specifically, few studies acknowledge differences in hazard severity and how it might affect risk perception and protective behavior. Past research has also tended to overlook the importance of emotional appraisal in relation to perceived hazard consequences. To address these inconsistencies in past research, 337 people living in a cyclone-prone location were recruited to participate in an online study. In this study, respondents were randomly presented with one of five hypothetical cyclone scenarios, which differed in objective severity. Respondents were also presented with a survey, which assessed risk perception, protective action perceptions (or coping appraisal), and intentions to perform short-term protective behaviors. As hypothesized, risk perception significantly increased preparedness intentions when controlling for hazard severity, hazard probability, and protective action perceptions. Moreover, the degree to which respondents associated negative emotions with predicted damage was also a relatively strong predictor of preparedness intentions. Overall, the findings support the theoretical link between risk perception and protective behavior and provide a new method of assessing risk perception in cross-sectional research. On a practical level, the results suggest that increasing risk perception should promote protective behavior in response to natural hazards.

When approaching a clustering problem, choosing the right clustering algorithm and parameters is essential, as each clustering algorithm is proficient at finding clusters of a particular nature. Due to the unsupervised nature of clustering algorithms, there are no ground truth values available for empirical evaluation, which makes automation of the parameter selection process through hyperparameter tuning difficult. Previous approaches to hyperparameter tuning for clustering algorithms have relied on internal metrics, which are often biased towards certain algorithms, or having some ground truth labels available, moving the problem into the semi-supervised space. This preliminary study proposes a framework for semi-automated hyperparameter tuning of clustering problems, using a grid search to develop a series of graphs and easy to interpret metrics that can then be used for more efficient domain-specific evaluation. Preliminary results show that internal metrics are unable to capture the semantic quality of the clusters developed and approaches driven by internal metrics would come to different conclusions than those driven by manual evaluation.

Structural upgrades can mitigate property damage caused by tropical cyclones. However, people in high-risk areas do not always install these upgrades. This paper used the protective action decision model (PADM) as a theoretical framework for explaining one specific type of structural mitigation behavior: the installation of cyclone shutters. The results indicated that the degree to which people think and talk about cyclones (hazard intrusiveness) was a significant predictor of behavior but that risk perception was not. Moreover, the results show that people need to perceive that installing shutters has benefits beyond mitigating damage (e.g., increases property value and has utility for other purposes). Contrary to past research, it was also found that the perceived cost of shutter installation (in terms of time, money, and effort) was important. The results provide evidence for the utility of the PADM for explaining long-term, high-cost natural hazard mitigation behavior.

Cyclones cause significant damage to property, infrastructure and housing Fotunately property owners can undertake structural upgrades to reduce damage However, installation of structural upgrades in cyclon prone regions such as North Queensland has been relatively low. This paper explains why e people do, and others do install structural upgrades. Research to date has identified psychological factors that may predict mitigation behaviour or other natural hazards but here are few studies that investigated cyclone-specific mitigation behaviour. This paper addresses this gap and identifies the psychological factors that promote mitigation behaviour or structures and presents a method of segmenting groups based on these psychological factors. Implications for risk communication messages to promote the adoption of household-level structural upgrades are discussed.

Introduction: Research in the field of climate change has identified that the severity of extreme weather events is likely to increase. As these events can have detrimental effects to both physical and mental health, it is important to understand the factors that promote resilience. Past research suggests that social resilience to hazards encompasses both the avoidance of losses (through preparation) and the ability to recover with minimal social disruptions if disaster a occurs. The purpose of this research was to identify the psychosocial factors that influence social resilience in a high risk population in North Queensland. Methods: Participants (n=356) living in Townsville (n=309) and Cairns (n=47) were recruited via social media to participate in a questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed variables including: age, homeownership, social capital, self-efficacy, preparedness, resilience, psychological distress. Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to identify factors that predicted preparedness and individual level resilience. Results: No significant relationship was found between preparedness and psychological resilience. However, it was found that self-efficacy (although not related to preparedness) was correlated to both resilience and psychological distress and was the strongest predictor in the multiple regression model. Conclusions: These results suggest that in populations where weather threats are relatively severe and common, different factors influencedifferent components of social resilience. As high risk populations are usually more prepared (through experience) there should be a separation of focus between preparing for the event and preparing for the outcome. This study suggests that preparing for the outcome (promoting individual resilience) may be facilitated by increasing self-efficacy, locus of control and decreasing psychological distress.