Socioeconomic Paradigms and the Perception of System Risks: A Study of Attitudes towards Nuclear Power among Polish Business Students

Abstract

Due to anticipated energy shortages and the need to achieve climate goals, there is an urgent requirement for transition towards a green, resilient system of energy provision. This transition is hampered because important players in energy markets (governments and oligopolies), while supporting large-scale solutions, avoid or block systemic changes. This rejection of systemic change is strengthened by the dominant social paradigm, which ignores systemic vulnerabilities, treating resources as solutions and the environment as a sink. In its turn, the dominant social paradigm is contested by the new ecological paradigm and by attitudes towards sustainable business practices. Understanding this framework may be relevant for identifying decision-makers’ perception of system risk, and thus for supporting a transition towards a more decentralized and resilient energy supply. In this context, this paper presents an empirical study among Polish students of a business university (N = 393), trying to discover the relationship between the social paradigms, perceptions of environmental resources and sinks, and systemic risk in large-scale energy production (i.e., nuclear power plants). Although the explained variance is limited, results show that various elements of the dominant social paradigm are related to problem denial. Technological optimism and belief in markets are predictors of optimism about resource shortages and neglect of system risk. This optimism is counteracted by political liberalism, and respondent attitudes towards sustainable business practices. Belief in market forces has an ambivalent effect, tempering technological optimism regarding nuclear energy but also political acknowledgement of the limited resources and sink capacities of the environment. Although the influence of the dominant social paradigm on energy transition can be identified, the results may indicate a decline in belief in market forces and liberal democracy, implying a rethinking of the dominant social paradigm may be needed. The existing relationship between these aspects warrants a critical review and discussion of the central role of the dominant paradigm in current management training. The results indicate that a lack of political liberalism and a negative attitude towards sustainable business practices amplify system risks in, e.g., large-scale nuclear energy projects.

Beyond Personal Beliefs: The Impact of the Dominant Social Paradigm on Energy Transition Choices

“…These students participated in a course on sustainable logistics, including the topic of sustainable energy transition. The student profile was similar to earlier research on the relation between the Dominant Social Paradigm and ignorance of system risk of nuclear energy [20]. After the presentation and discussion of the results of the survey in Section 4, conclusions in Section 5 display differences in preferences compared to the German study [6].…”

“…The Dominant Social Paradigm has been developed based on a wide range of models trying to identify determinants and sources of environmental attitudes and willingness to change. It has been widely tested in a multi-national context [20,58]. As this paradigm is assumed to be a socially embedded (behavioral) driver of environmental choices, here the question is addressed whether it influences the preferences for a certain energy transition scenario.…”

“…Research [20] shows that political views may lead to neglect of system risks of largescale energy supply projects, posing the question of whether the political part of the Dominant Social Paradigm shifts towards authoritarianism [65]. Autarky relates to independence, autonomy, and self-sufficiency, values that might be considered elementary for the choice of energy scenario [6].…”

“…This DSP, with its inbuilt expectations of material growth, technological solutions, and specialization, has been evolving since the Enlightenment [17,19]. It is being blamed for treating the environment as an unlimited source and sink and for seeing the development of markets and technology as the only solutions to any type of social and environmental problems [20]. Furthermore, the combination of techno-optimism and downplaying system risks [19] can hamper the transition towards renewable energy.…”

“…The DSP may be the cause behind the technological and institutional lock-ins that favor large-scale energy systems and that hamper gains from a transition towards small-scale, renewable energy. The Dominant Social Paradigm is assumed to be a socially embedded (behavioral) driver of environmental choices [18] and as a source of ignorance of system risk [20]. This study uses a novel approach, testing the Dominant Social Paradigm as a driver of the choice of an energy transition scenario, expanding an existing set of scenarios.…”