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Radioactively contaminated soil from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station accident in 2011 is required by law to be finally disposed of outside Fukushima Prefecture by 2045. To gain public acceptance of this policy, it is essential to promote understanding and nationwide discussion. We conducted a web-based survey of 2000 people in Japan to examine public attitudes toward final disposal of the contaminated soil outside Fukushima Prefecture. Results show that policy approval was negatively correlated with perceived risk of a final disposal site, sense of inequity associated with building a final disposal site near residential areas, and values that are absolutely non-negotiable or protected from trade-offs with other values (protected values). Policy approval was positively correlated with high levels of interest in the Fukushima accident and subjective knowledge of decontamination and the policy. Respondents' comments and opinions about the policy indicated that respondents who approved of the policy accepted burden sharing, while those who disapproved were unconvinced by the rationale behind disposal outside Fukushima Prefecture and were dissatisfied by the lack of information disclosure and transparency. While the government's efforts to disseminate information about the current status and future of Fukushima have been effective to a certain extent, they are insufficient to achieve widespread public understanding of the policy. Our results indicate that attention needs to be paid to procedural fairness and explanations of risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine litter and plastic pollution are pressing concerns demanding immediate attention. Understanding psychological processes causing anti-environmental behavior is crucial to prevent littering. Even when people have the intention not to litter, they may still engage in littering behaviors. Therefore, this study develops a littering behavior model that incorporates the concept of implementation intention. This proposed model suggests that the willingness to admit to littering within a specific context is introduced between the behavioral intention and the actual behavior. For this study, a web questionnaire survey was conducted in Japan, yielding 4642 valid responses. We developed question items considering response bias toward socially undesirable content. Through this approach, we gathered participant responses that revealed a tendency to litter depending on the situation. The results of structural equation modeling confirmed the model's validity, suggesting that implementation intention was a direct determinant of littering behavior. The model demonstrated that individuals may still engage in littering behavior in specific situations, despite having a goal of not littering, due to the influence of implementation intention. Accordingly, efficient interventions should be designed in alignment with this behavioral model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fostering the development of innovative methods of communication and collaboration. Integrating AI into Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is now ushering in an era of social progress that has the potential to empower marginalized groups. This transformation paves the way to a digital inclusion that could qualitatively empower the online presence of women, particularly in conservative and male-dominated regions. To explore this possibility, we investigated the effect of integrating conversational agents into online debates encompassing 240 Afghans discussing the fall of Kabul in August 2021. We found that the agent leads to quantitative differences in how both genders contribute to the debate by raising issues, presenting ideas, and articulating arguments. We also found increased ideation and reduced inhibition for both genders, particularly females, when interacting exclusively with other females or the agent. The enabling character of the conversational agent reveals an apparatus that could empower women and increase their agency on online platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrates that a decision-making process utilising 'the veil of ignorance' concept, defined in process terms as beginning from a blank slate encompassing the entire country as potential sites and shortlisting candidate sites based on scientific (geological) safety, promotes public acceptance of siting a repository for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste and fosters procedural fairness. A hypothetical scenario experiment was conducted in Japan, manipulating the site selection process by setting two conditions—one being the application/proposal condition that the Japanese government currently employs, such as an application by municipalities or a proposal by the government, and the other being the veil of ignorance condition, in which multiple candidate areas are selected from a blank slate for the entire land area based purely on geological factors. Three stages of acceptance were presumed—at the level of general management policy, the site selection process itself with a specified decision policy, and the siting of a repository in their area of residence. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) the veil of ignorance condition will be evaluated as a more acceptable and fairer procedure and will engender increased national consensus than the application/proposal condition at the site selection and repository siting stages, and (b) procedural fairness and national consensus will impact acceptance at each stage; these variables at each stage help shape the same variables in the next stage. The results supported these hypotheses. This study discusses the importance of the site selection process, beginning where any de facto site can be a candidate and shortlisting the candidate sites based on scientific criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]