Affective responses to high-voltage power lines: The importance of siting

Symposium: Psychological aspects of risk perception and behavior The majority of Swiss high-voltage power lines (HVPLs) are older than 50 years and need to be renewed in order to meet the increased demand for electricity.... [ view full abstract ]

Symposium: Psychological aspects of risk perception and behavior

The majority of Swiss high-voltage power lines (HVPLs) are older than 50 years and need to be renewed in order to meet the increased demand for electricity. Additionally, the planned transition from nuclear power to decentralized renewable energy sources in Switzerland will result in the necessity for the modification and expansion of the electricity grid. However, public acceptance of HVPLs is generally low, which often leads to delays and suspensions of planned grid expansion projects. Drawing on the importance of affect in the context of public acceptance of technologies, the goal of the present work was to shed light on people’s affective responses to HVPLs and examine the influence of different siting options in this context. The results of an online study (N=94) showed that pictures of landscapes with HVPLs evoke significantly stronger negative feelings than pictures of the same landscapes without HVPLs. Moreover, these differences were greater for pictures showing positively perceived surroundings, such as natural landscapes, recreation areas, or residential zones, compared to pictures with negative surroundings, such as highways and industrial areas. This underlines the importance of siting in the context of changes to the electricity grid. To validate these findings using a more implicit measure, an eye-tracking study (N=96) was conducted. Based on previous findings demonstrating that affective responses are accompanied by an increase in pupil size, we expect that participants will show greater pupil dilation while presented with pictures of landscapes with HVPLs compared to the same pictures without HVPLs. Differences and similarities between the explicit and implicit measures will be discussed.