Shorter Message, Stronger Framing Increases Societal Acceptance for Hydrogen

With the question of ‘can short messages be effective in increasing public support for a complex new technology (hydrogen)?‘, this study uses a representative national survey in Australia to analyze the differences and variations in subjective support for hydrogen in response to four differently framed short messages. The findings of this study show that short messages can increase social acceptance, but the effects depend on how strongly the message is framed in terms of its alignment with either an economic or environmental values framework. Furthermore, the effects depend on the social and cultural context of the receiver of the message.