The Affect Heuristic, Correspondence Analysis, and Understanding LULUs

摘要

The March 2012 issue contained a noteworthy and understated application of correspondence analysis directed at gauging public reactions in Switzerland to replacing aging nuclear power plants. Keller et al~(1) report that 1,221 German- and French-speaking Swiss residents presented many more negative images than positive ones. German-speaking residents of Switzerland (all five Swiss nuclear power plants are located in the German-speaking areas of Switzerland) and males were more positively disposed to replacing existing plants and exhibited more positive affect than their French-speaking and female counterparts. This Swiss survey was conducted before multiple nuclear power plants and used fuel facilities in Japan were severely damaged in March 2011. The authors suggest that public opinion about new nuclear power plants among the previously undecided is probably more negative.