Our study will examine how Internet users‘ online identity as independent variable influences the opposition actions toward the nuclear energy. So, our study will review the previous researches about the role of identity in cyberspace.
As many researches about identity have been done in psychology, they applies the concept of identity to understand the behaviors in cyberspace. However, there are very few studies to examine the role of identity in judging the risk related with nuclear power issues. Today, the overall discourse about or the opposition to the nuclear power energy occurred in cyberspace. The results from online communications influence the attitude which the public hold about nuclear energy. Therefore, it is important to understand the online action and its cause.
Based on the online survey data, our study will examine the role of identity to opposing actions toward nuclear power in cyberspace.
For this work, we set up two opposition action as dependent variables: (1) the intention to diffuse the information related to the opposition about nuclear power energy, (2) opposition action such as the participation in the petition toward nuclear power or in making the replies and writings related with the opposition. Also, we select the identity in cyberspace as the main independent variable under controlling (1) the degree of addiction into online, (2) belief in anonymity, (3) trust toward the cyberspace, (4) perceived risk-benefit and (5) knowledge about nuclear power.
Our studies will highlight whether online identity influences the intentions to diffusion and opposition behaviors related with the nuclear power.