Due to the development of the internet and communication devices, communication and information transmission on the internet have developed much more than in the past. In particular, internet users faced the polarized attitude in cyberspace, in which polarized attitude significantly influences other judgement about risk objects. However, there are very few studies. Thus, this study aims to analyze which causal factors to influence the polarized attitude toward nuclear energy. For this study, we analyzed the 1572 online survey data and used the statistical package of SPSS Statistics 22.
In analytical model, we set up the polarized attitude as dependent variable. This variable were measured by two items: My online attitude toward nuclear power is even more extreme than offline” and “If you look at the nuclear information on the internet, you can think of nuclear power more extreme than usual”. Also, to analyze the causes of polarization in the online environment, not offline, we select the psychometric paradigm and cyber psychological factors as independent variables. The first includes benefit, risk, stigma, knowledge and trust. The second includes the (1) the degree of addiction into online, (2) belief in anonymity, (3) trust toward the cyberspace, (4) motivation, and (5) the efficacy. We believe that our studies will contribute to show the structure and its causes of polarized attitude toward nuclear energy in cyberspace.