The role of trust in public acceptability of energy projects: Integrity versus competence

Abstract

Public acceptability of energy projects depends on people’s trust in agents responsible for those projects. We examined to what extent different dimensions of trust, notably integrity- and competence-based trust, are associated with public acceptability of real ongoing energy projects associated with acute risks and other consequences. A series of questionnaire studies in the Netherlands revealed that both integrity- and competence-based trust were positively associated with public acceptability of natural gas extraction which causes earthquakes in the region. Yet, integrity-based trust was more strongly and consistently associated with public acceptability of the natural gas extraction compared to competence-based trust. The findings were rather consistent across four different measurement phases. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Does trust matter in external audits? The role of audit committee chair’s trust in external audits

“…The results are coherent with those of previous studies – integrity trust has a positive correlation with the perceived quality of interactions (Liu et al , 2022). The results are partially consistent with Cheung and Lai (2022), who find that integrity trust is an important motivator for the quality of interactions during both stages, but this study finds that integrity trust is only significant during the pre-engagement stage.…”

Trusting the minister or trusting the mayor? Perceived competence and integrity of central and local Dutch institutions governing energy matters

“…Literature suggests that people commonly assess institutions at least in terms of their expertise and knowledge (i.e., competence-based trust) and on whether their intentions seem honest and taking the public interest into account (integrity-based trust) (Terwel et al 2009, Perlaviciute and Steg 2014, Liu et al 2020a, Kitt et al 2021, Siegrist 2021, Liu et al 2022. These dimensions tap into the two (universal) dimensions people typically use to evaluate social information (e.g., other people, social groups, objects): competence and warmth, respectively (Fiske et al 2007).…”

“…Both competence-based and integrity-based trust have been found to be associated with higher public acceptability of energy policies and projects (Bronfman et al 2015). Yet, correlational and experimental research has shown that integrity-based trust is more strongly associated with the public acceptability of energy projects than competence-based trust (Liu et al 2020a(Liu et al , 2022. For example, higher integrity-based trust in a hypothetical energy company tasked with the implementation of a renewable energy project led to higher public acceptability of such a project, no matter the level of competence-based trust people had in the energy company.…”

Ability or morality? Exploring the multiple dimensions of social trust on public acceptance of urban transport infrastructure projects

“…Although numerous other categorizations exist in the broad literature on social trust, existing studies suggests that trust can be seen as a two-dimensional structure consisting of competence and integrity (Eckerd et al, 2021). In addition, both stronger competence-based and integrity-based trust are related to higher public acceptance in energy projects, carbon dioxide capture and storage project and climate engineering (Kitt et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2020Liu et al, , 2022.…”