Public attitudes toward biofuels: Effects of knowledge, political partisanship, and media use

Abstract

Despite large-scale investments and government mandates to expand biofuels development and infrastructure in the United States, little is known about how the public conceives of this alternative fuel technology. This study examines public opinion of biofuels by focusing on citizen knowledge and the motivated processing of media information. Specifically, we explore the direct effects of biofuels knowledge and the moderating effect of partisanship on the relationship between media use and benefit vs. risk perceptions in the following four domains: environmental impacts, economic consequences, ethical/social implications, and political ramifications. Our results suggest that more knowledgeable respondents see fewer benefits of biofuels relative to risks, and that Democrats and Republicans are affected differently by media use when forming opinions about biofuels. Among Democrats, greater attention to political media content leads to a more favorable outlook toward the technology across several domains of interest, while among Republicans, an increase in attention to political content has the opposite effect. Possible reasons for these results, as well as implications of the findings at the intersection of politics and the life sciences, are discussed.

Science communication as political communication

“…As discussed earlier, we know from numerous studies that higher levels of knowledge do not necessarily translate into more positive attitudes toward science. In fact, research into motivated reasoning (74,75) suggests that all of us process information in biased ways-based on preexisting religious views (3,76), cultural values (77), or ideologies (78). Motivated reasoning is partly a function of confirmation and disconfirmation biases: i.e., a tendency to confirm existing viewpoints by selectively giving more weight to information that supports our initial view and to discount information that does not.…”

Communicating about ocean health: theoretical and practical considerations

“…Amid this persistent polarization, related environmental issues are at risk for being perceived and interpreted through similar 'politicized' mental schemas, in which citizens draw on their closely held values and positions of party leaders or other partisan elites, for example, rather than expressing independent opinions formed through a more dispassionate consideration of scientific evidence [78][79][80]. Beyond climate change, politicization has been observed in recent discourse surrounding a number of contemporary scientific and environmental issues, including debates about hydraulic fracturing, biofuels and nanotechnology, to name a few [46][47][48].…”

Public opinion on energy development: The interplay of issue framing, top-of-mind associations, and political ideology

“…Cacciatore et al suggested that Democrats view biofuels as a "green" energy source: a moniker that gives them an opportunity to reaffirm commitment to the environment (see also Cacciatore at al., 2012b). Ethanol, however, has more negative connotations, such as the diversion of food crops for fuel.…”