When others control risks: Others-focused coping with risks from energy projects

Abstract

Energy projects can cause various risks over which people have little control, because they are usually developed, implemented, and managed by external parties, such as governments and industry. This study aims to examine how people cope with such externally controlled risks from energy projects, in particular earthquakes induced by gas extraction in their region. Specifically, we studied which factors influence people's intentions to engage in emotion-focused coping aimed at reducing negative emotions, and problem-focused coping aimed at reducing the risks and/or their negative consequences. Extending previous studies, we distinguish two types of problem-focused coping that may be relevant when facing externally controlled risks, namely self-focused coping, in which individual themselves take action to reduce the negative consequences of the risks, and others-focused coping, in which case individuals urge responsible parties to take actions to reduce the risks. Our results show that the three types of coping can be distinguished empirically, and people are likely to engage in others-focused coping. Further, people are most likely to engage in others-focused coping when they experience strong morality-based emotions toward the risks from energy projects, whereas they are most likely to engage in self-focused coping and emotion-focused coping when they experience strong negative consequence-based emotions toward the risks from energy projects.