Acceptance Of Policies Research Articles

Proof of Trade-off between Economy and Safety in the Acceptance of New Normal Policy for Tourism Industry in the Covid-19 Pandemic; Evidence from Bali

This article shows the existence of a trade-off between the economy and safety in the acceptance of the New Normal Policy for the tourism industry. To prove the existence of the trade-off, path analysis was used to test the mediating effect of the Economic Impact of Pandemic Covid-19 in the prediction of Acceptance Toward New-Normal Policy with the Danger of The Pandemic Covid-19 as the predictor. The result shows that mediation exists, thus trade-off also exists. It means that in the current Pandemic Covid-19 situation, people prefer the economy more than health and safety since they understand that the NewNormal Policy will ensure their health and safety while pursuing the economy. This article contributes to presenting a different method for measuring trade-offs, other than Discreet Choice Experiments (DCE) which is widely used as a method to measure trade-offs. Having proved that trade-off exists, this article recommended that government should always educate the citizen about the danger of the pandemic. This is important so that they will pursue the economy safely and responsibly.

Proof of Trade-off between Economy and Safety in the Acceptance of New Normal Policy for Tourism Industry in the Covid-19 Pandemic; Evidence from Bali

Proof of Trade-off between Economy and Safety in the Acceptance of New Normal Policy for Tourism Industry in the Covid-19 Pandemic; Evidence from Bali

Proof of Trade-off between Economy and Safety in the Acceptance of New Normal Policy for Tourism Industry in the Covid-19 Pandemic; Evidence from Bali

Proof of Trade-off between Economy and Safety in the Acceptance of New Normal Policy for Tourism Industry in the Covid-19 Pandemic; Evidence from Bali

Preferences for climate change policies: the role of co-benefits

ABSTRACT Policies mitigating climate change provide a global public good but are also likely to imply local co-benefits where implemented. This may affect citizens’ preferences for what policy to implement as well as where to implement it. This aspect remains understudied despite its relevance for international climate negotiations, national policies, and the development of voluntary carbon credit markets. The results of a discrete choice experiment show that citizens in five countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) have quite similar mean willingness to pay for carbon emission reductions and agree on the ranking of policies targeting different sectors. Specifically, policies targeting renewable energy use, are preferred over policies targeting industrial energy efficiency or carbon sequestration and biomass production in forests. Applying follow-up questions shows that concerns over co-benefits, notably air pollution, is linked to preferences for implementation in the home country. In the absence of co-benefits, citizens are indifferent or prefer policies implemented in other countries. Key policy highlights Citizens in five European countries share preferences for climate change mitigation policies, though significant intra-national heterogeneity in preferences exist Policies targeting increased use of renewables are preferred over policies targeting improved energy efficiency in the industry. Citizens express preferences for policies implemented in their own country. This is associated with their perception of co-benefits. In particular, consideration of reduced air pollution as a side effect of investing in renewable energy and in energy efficiency in the industry are important determinants of preferences for national implementation of policies. Preferences for national co-benefits may both enhance policy acceptance and reduce willingness to support policies implemented in other countries. The latter aspect may reduce cost-effectiveness across countries but ease effort-sharing negotiations.

Exposure to negative foreign COVID-19 news predicts lower support for immigration policy in China

We present a framework for studying the spillover effect of negative foreign COVID-19 news on attitudes towards immigration. Our framework proposes that exposure to negative COVID-19 news from foreign countries can activate negative associations with foreigners, reduce positive attitudes towards them, and increase perceived threat, ultimately leading to decreased support for immigration. We conducted three studies to test this framework. Study 1 found that exposure to negative COVID-19 news about a foreign country increased negative valence associations with that country. Study 2 showed that exposure to more negative COVID-19 news about foreign countries was associated with lower acceptance of immigration policies in real life. Study 3 replicated the spillover effect of negative news exposure using a scenario manipulation. The effects of negative news exposure on immigration policy acceptance in both Studies 2 and 3 were mediated by changes in foreigner attitudes and intergroup threat. Our results demonstrate the important spillover effect of negative foreign COVID-19 news exposure on immigration attitudes and highlight the association perspective as a foundation for understanding attitude changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discounting the future: The effect of collective motivation on investment decisions and acceptance of policies for renewable energy

Climate protection is a collective project. However, most previous research on people’s pro-climate behavior ignores the collective dimension, looking at personal private-sphere behavior and considering personal cost-benefit predictors only. The present paper transcends this individualistic perspective by addressing behaviors that target collective transformation (i.e., financial investments in renewable energy projects and the acceptance of renewable energy policies) and predictors of collective cognition and motivation (i.e., social identity). Combining insights and methods from economics and psychology, the current research investigates if collective pro-environmental motivation (e.g., pro-environmental ingroup norms, collective climate efficacy beliefs) can add to the explanation of investment decisions and the acceptance of policies for renewable energies, also beyond personal psychological and economic factors. Results from a multi-country survey (31 European countries, N = 18,037), including a discrete choice experiment, showed that collective pro-environmental motivation was positively correlated with the acceptance of green energy policies and negatively correlated with discounting of future benefits (money discount rate) in investment decisions for renewable energies. Importantly, collective pro-environmental motivation remained a significant predictor of policy acceptance and the discount rate after controlling for personal pro-environmental motivation. Furthermore, the associations between collective pro-environmental motivation and our outcome measures were stronger for respondents who highly identified with their group compared to low identifiers. Our (correlational) results are one of the first to show that collective psychological factors are a unique predictor of green investment behavior and acceptance of green policies. From an applied perspective, our findings suggest that interventions should target agentic social identities with norms supporting pro-environmental behavior to increase acceptance of and participation in the transformation towards carbon neutrality, particularly for persons with low personal pro-environmental motivation.

Residents’ perceived social impacts and attitudinal change: a case of the skateboarding event in Japan

ABSTRACT Organising sporting events is no longer just a matter of interest to event operators. In Japan, various local governments actively attract non-mega-sporting events as part of their urban development policies. However, these policy formulations must be evidence-based, especially in understanding the impact of sporting events and residents’ relationship to sporting events. Most social impact studies in sport management research have predominantly used the cross-sectional approach; hence, it is necessary to conduct a longitudinal research design to understand variations in residents’ long-term perceptions. Adapting prospect theory as the theoretical background, this study aims to investigate the change difference in social impacts and residents’ attitudes using a longitudinal panel data approach. The authors revealed that residents’ perceptions towards social impact would change before and after the event. Additionally, multiple factors were associated with differences in the dependent variables. This study provided a detailed understanding of residents’ changing perceptions and attitudes towards the event, which will also demonstrate to residents the scientific rationale for hosting the event. In the midst of the need for sustainable sporting event management, a more detailed analysis of the impact-driven on the community from hosting the event will affect changes in trust towards the government and acceptance of local policies is a perspective that is required for future research on social impact.

Exploring views of members of the public and policymakers on the acceptability of population level dietary and active-travel policies: a qualitative study

BackgroundThere is limited evidence on what shapes the acceptability of population level dietary and active-travel policies in England. This information would be useful in the decision-making process about which policies should be implemented and how to increase their effectiveness and sustainability. To fill this gap, we explored public and policymakers’ views about factors that influence public acceptability of dietary and active-travel policies and how to increase public acceptability for these policies.MethodsWe conducted online, semi-structured interviews with 20 members of the public and 20 policymakers in England. A purposive sampling frame was used to recruit members of the public via a recruitment agency, based on age, sex, socioeconomic status and ethnicity. Policymakers were recruited from existing contacts within our research collaborations and via snowball sampling. We explored different dietary and active-travel policies that varied in their scope and focus. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic reflexive analysis with both inductive and deductive coding.ResultsWe identified four themes that informed public acceptability of dietary and active-travel policies: (1) perceived policy effectiveness, i.e., policies that included believable mechanisms of action, addressed valued co-benefits and barriers to engage in the behaviour; (2) perceived policy fairness, i.e., policies that provided everyone with an opportunity to benefit (mentioned only by the public), equally considered the needs of various population subgroups and rewarded ‘healthy’ behaviours rather than only penalising ‘unhealthy’ behaviours; (3) communication of policies, i.e., policies that were visible and had consistent and positive messages from the media (mentioned only by policymakers) and (4) how to improve policy support, with the main suggestion being an integrated strategy addressing multiple aspects of these behaviours, inclusive policies that consider everyone’s needs and use of appropriate channels and messages in policy communication.ConclusionsOur findings highlight that members’ of the public and policymakers’ support for dietary and active-travel policies can be shaped by the perceived effectiveness, fairness and communication of policies and provide suggestions on how to improve policy support. This information can inform the design of acceptable policies but can also be used to help communicate existing and future policies to maximise their adoption and sustainability.

Effects of Safety Management Perceived in Local Festivals on Sustainability: Focusing on Concert for Attracting Busan World Fair 2030

The local festival is regarded as one of the important factors which may have economic, commercial, environmental, socio-cultural, psychological, and political effects on residents and also have effects on their social resilience and social capital strength. The purpose of this study is to analyze 'what effect do participants' perceptions have on the safety management provided to the festival?'. The findings show that the safety management perceived by participants who participated in the BTS 'Yet To Come' in BUSAN, a concert for attracting the Busan World Fair 2030 has a statistically significant effect on the sustainability of the festival, while the provision of safety information harms it, indicating that the higher the demand for providing information, the higher the need and the expectation for the safety management service. It would be necessary to specifically make safety management plans at the planning stage, to successfully attract local festivals, to implement transparent safety management policies and provide information in advance, to encourage the acceptance of such policies, and by increasing participants' reliability for safety.

STEM Education and the Contradictory Realities of School Policies: An Essay Review of Eisenhart, M. A., & Weis, L. (2022). STEM Education Reform in Urban High Schools: Opportunities, Constraints, Culture, and Outcomes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press

STEM Education Reform in Urban High Schools critically examines the reality of STEM at a school level in the United States. In essence, its fundamental questions include: What actually happens in schools—and especially to students—when STEM becomes the prime focus? What happens to STEM itself? Given the intense pressures on schools, does STEM often become largely rhetorical? When there are different results, what structures, resources, and commitments explain this? The focus is on two cities—Buffalo and Denver—and on schools that have large populations of minoritized students. In this essay, I discuss the contributions that the authors make to our understandings of the complex and contradictory realities of STEM education. At the same time, I also point to a number of the criticisms of the often uncritical acceptance of STEM and STEAM educational policies and practices.

Intellectual Humility as A Predictor of Conflict Resolution in Government Policy Acceptance in the Situation of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

The spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia shows a relatively high increase throughout the Pandemic. The government is trying to run various programs to break the chain of transmission of Covid-19, but the refusal of some people makes controlling the pandemic more difficult to achieve. The spread of hoax news and oppositional attitudes towards the government also influenced public rejection. This condition also increases the escalation of conflict between the government and some community groups. Proven in this study, intellectual humility correlates with the formation of conflict resolution, so it can be a good predictor in seeing public acceptance of government policies, especially related to the determination of interventions to groups that are not cooperative with Covid-19 response. This research is participatory, with a phenomenological framework whose data is converted into quantitative. Next, it is analyzed using parametric statistical calculations.

What Difference Does a (Disabled) Husband Make? Disabled Veterans, Women, and the Limits of Population Policy in the Third Reich

The Nazi regime used state-run marriage mediation of disabled veterans and war widows to align women's marital choices with the Nazi goal of raising the German birth rate. Marriage centers were intended as a gateway to wider acceptance of population policy and to eventually abolish the marriage “free marketplace” in favor of demographic management to create collective outcomes of hereditary fitness. This involved creating new marital and reproductive duties among Germans and channeling this social responsibility to convince Germans to willingly participate in marriage mediation for the greater good. Yet, individual desire and self-reliance in the broader marketplace almost always trumped Nazi policy.

Bio-straw or not? Determinants of consumption intention under the plastic straw ban.

A new plastic ban has banned the use of single-use non-degradable plastic drinking straws in China's food and beverage industry by the end of 2020. However, this has caused widespread discussion and complaints on social media. What are consumers' reactions and what factors influence consumers to choose bio-straws (substitutes for plastic straws) are unclear. Therefore, this research collected 4367 effective comments (177,832 words in total) on "bio-straws" from social media and extracted keywords based on grounded theory to generate questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the consumption intention and influencing factors of 348 consumers regarding the ban. The results indicate the following: (1) consumer opinion on straws can be summarized into five main categories, namely, consumers' user experience, consumer subjectivity, policy awareness, policy acceptance, and consumption intention; (2) consumer subjectivity, policy awareness, and policy acceptance directly affect consumption intention significantly, while user experience affects consumption intention indirectly; and (3) user experience and consumer subjectivity play significant roles in mediating these relationships. From the perspective of consumers, this study provides an important basis for policymakers to formulate single-use plastic alternative policies in the future.

Navigating the razor's edge: Public acceptance of climate policies and the case of transport pricing

Transport pricing (TP) can be a helpful policy instrument for climate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster sustainable mobility. Yet few cities have implemented TP. The main barriers include a lack of public and political acceptance, especially in regions with entrenched socio-technical systems and cultures of automobility. The dominance of automobility can be a reason for TP to be unacceptable to the public and politicians. Yet, policies for low-carbon mobility may ultimately fail if they are designed within automobility. This article considers this tension in transport-pricing policy design, as a subset of broader climate policies. How can public acceptance be secured for TP, both navigating within automobility to gain sufficient public uptake but also beyond automobility towards more transformative climate action? This paper examines the proposed TP policy for Vancouver, Canada. We summarize what has been found to support public and political acceptance of TP in other cities, and then particularly look at Oslo, Norway. Our findings suggest that TP policy-design that parts with an automobility regime—and rather is carried out within a low-carbon paradigm—may confront greater short-term challenges with public acceptance, but will better position such an innovative policy for success on the long-term.

Climate‐related armed conflict and communities' resistance to Rural Grazing Area settlement policy in Nigeria's Middlebelt

AbstractIn Nigeria, resource contests have sparked unending ecological conflict. As a result, conflict resolution measures have been proposed to mitigate climate‐related conflict. However, the acceptance of such policies is hampered by ethnic suspicions, communities' exclusion, religious sensitivities, and a lack of political will. State policies are frequently based on centralized resources, which is exacerbated by the complexities of power relations between central and sub‐national authorities. Thus, this article examines communities' resistance to the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) settlement policy in Nigeria's Middlebelt using Benue state as a reference point. The study employed a quantitative method using questionnaires. The study used a sample size of 385 questionnaires administered in Guma, Gwer‐West, Gwer‐East, Ukum, and Logo local governments in Benue state. Therefore, the article found that the failure of communities' inclusivity substantially contributed to the local revolt against the RUGA settlement policy. Specifically, the study's findings demonstrate that the possibility of losing ancestral lands, the past experience of the host communities, ethnic and political factors, and poor policy awareness were the primary factors that reinforced communities' resistance to RUGA policy. Moreover, the government's over‐reliance on an authoritarian mechanism and wrong policy choices compounded by a non‐inclusive approach contributed to policy failure to gain acceptability at the grassroots level in Benue state. As an intervention, the article recommends democratically inclusive conflict resolution strategies for climate‐related armed conflict in the region.

Developing an educational policy acceptance model to explore the implementation of Vietnamese teachers’ inquiry-based teaching

ABSTRACT Inquiry-based teaching (IBT) is becoming more prevalent in educational settings. However, moving from lecture-centred teaching to inquiry-based teaching is not just a matter of policy making, but also requires a shift in teachers’ mindsets as an essential step towards successfully promoting IBT. To understand how policy can be accepted, this study explored teachers’ acceptance of IBT in the context of implementing a new general education curriculum in Vietnam. Taking teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) as a driving factor, how it related to teachers’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of IBT application, attitude, and intention to implement IBT was examined. Participants were teachers from junior and senior high schools in Hanoi, Vietnam. Data from 217 participants were subjected to structural equation modelling to verify the research model. Results indicated that TSE was positively associated with teachers’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of IBT implementation in their course instruction. Furthermore, these two variables were positively related to teachers’ attitude towards implementing IBT. Ultimately, teachers’ attitude was related to their intentions to continue using IBT. The implication of this study is that TSE plays the driving role in implementing IBT; thus, enhancing TSE appears to be the key to successfully implementing IBT.

Evaluating the relevance, credibility and legitimacy of a novel participatory online tool

Given the immense pressure on politicians across the globe to implement efficient yet socially-accepted climate policies, research on policy acceptance becomes increasingly important. Several studies could contribute to the understanding of what affects policy acceptance, but their methodological approaches usually assess isolated solutions instead of policy mixes and do not display the various impacts of presented policies. Most often, these studies lack a critical self-evaluation of such methodological drawbacks. In this paper we present and evaluate an innovative citizen choice experiment tool (called Participatory Value Evaluation, PVE), in which people are asked to select intensity levels for eleven transport policies, while simultaneously seeing the environmental, social and financial impacts of their choices. We evaluate the PVE and its contents and features regarding its (scientific) Credibility, (political & societal) RElevance and (societal) LEgitimacy (subsumed as CRELE framework) as a prerequisite for supporting socially-accepted policy-making. For this purpose, 601 open text survey answers regarding the strengths and potential improvements of the tool are analyzed by means of a qualitative content analysis. Descriptive statistics of the survey participants are used to further enrich the analysis. Based on this evidence, we can conclude that the PVE is indeed a credible, relevant and legitimate tool for assessing policy options. Participants positively highlighted the tool’s ability to credibly visualize the impacts of selected policies, thereby raising awareness for the severity of climate change and the required policy response. Ambivalent answers were received regarding the social fairness of included measures and the preferred complexity of the tool.

Effects of Social Influence on Relationships among Citizens’ Expectation Confirmation, Satisfaction and Acceptance under Different Urban Renewal Compensation Modes

Both public administration researchers and practitioners have realized that citizens’ satisfaction with and acceptance of urban renewal compensation policy are critical for the local authorities to initiate urban renewal projects. However, little is known about the possible effects of social influence from citizens’ peers and referents on their satisfaction and acceptance. This research proposes a theoretical model that hypothesizes the relationships among citizens’ expectation confirmation, satisfaction and acceptance and introduces perceived distributive justice and subjective norms as representations of social influence. Two rounds of questionnaire surveys with a one-month time lag were conducted to collect data for testing the proposed model. Survey data from 314 citizens involved in different urban renewal compensation modes in China show that citizens’ expectation confirmation positively influences citizen satisfaction, which in turn determines the final public acceptance of the policy. The results also highlight the critical roles that perceived distributive justice and subjective norms play in different compensation modes. These findings provide researchers and administrators with theoretical and practical implications.

User Awareness on the Implementation of Digital Service Tax in Malaysia

The development of information technology and rising internet usage has fueled the expansion of digital-based services across the globe. The government started charging a six percent digital service tax (DST) to foreign digital service providers (FSPs) on 1st January 2020. In its first year of operation, this tax brought in more than RM400 million for the government. Digital Service Tax is only imposed on taxable digital services that are provided to consumers in Malaysia. Although the implementation of DST has been previously announced and the act has been enacted, there is a possibility that users have low awareness due to lack of information and unclear about the purpose of DST implementation. Moreover, a lack of understanding of the law may be a factor in the consumers' need for more awareness. Thus, this study aimed to examine factors influencing user awareness on the implementation of DST in Malaysia. This study applied a quantitative research method where questionnaires were distributed through Google forms among individual users in Klang Valley. A total of 63 respondents have been received, and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) has been used to analyse the data. According to this study, approximately 50% of the respondents learned about DST from television, radio, Internet and websites. Furthermore, the relationships between self-attitude, economic factors and user acceptance towards user awareness have been tested. Nevertheless, only economic factors and user acceptance have a significant positive influence towards the user awareness in the implementation of DST in Malaysia. Disseminating DST information to all users will increase their understanding and inculcate positive self-attitude towards acceptance of new tax policy. Therefore, the result of the study will assist the regulator, particularly the tax authority in finding a solution that could increase the level of tax awareness among the public and users.

Environmental condition, cultural worldview, and environmental perceptions in China

Understanding public debates on environmental problems is critical for enhancing the effectiveness and social acceptance of environmental policies. This article aims to understand how factual environmental condition and culture influence the perceived severity of environmental problems in China. Relying on Cultural Theory and Cultural Cognitive Theory, we measure grid with an egalitarianism-hierarchy scale and group with an individualism–communitarianism scale. We use a large scale nationwide representative survey data——the Chinese General Social Survey——to identify Chinese political subcultures and find that environmental condition alone rarely play a role in Chinese environmental perceptions, and that as hypothesized, moving from egalitarianism to hierarchy, people perceive six of eight environmental problems to be less severe, whereas moving from individualism to communitarianism, people perceive five of eight environmental problems to be more severe. Meanwhile, the effect of environmental condition on the relationship between cultural worldview and perceived severity is very limited. This study has implications for environmental communication.