Public Acceptance of Hydrogen in Industry

Last registered on August 27, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Public Acceptance of Hydrogen in Industry
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018784
Initial registration date
August 20, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
August 27, 2026, 11:48 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Raphael Gottweis
Affiliation
Vienna University of Economics and Business
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Andrea Kollmann
PI Affiliation
Energieinstitut an der Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-08-21
End date
2026-09-15
Keywords
Behavior, Environment & Energy
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
C93 – Field Experiments D91 – Behavioral Economics Q42 – Alternative Energy Sources Q48 – Energy Policy
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study public acceptance of hydrogen using a preregistered online survey experiment in Austria. Respondents are randomly assigned to a control condition or to one of several short video-based information treatments that highlight different potential benefits of hydrogen use. We measure support through voting intentions, project approval, willingness to express support, local acceptance, and support under higher short-run energy costs. The experiment estimates the causal effects of information on hydrogen acceptance and examines how beliefs, prior knowledge, and perceived social norms relate to support.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gottweis, Raphael and Andrea Kollmann. 2026. "Public Acceptance of Hydrogen in Industry." AEA RCT Registry. August 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18784-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Respondents receive information about hydrogen and its potential role in the energy transition. The control group receives basic information, while treatment groups receive short video-based information treatments that highlight different potential benefits of hydrogen use.
Intervention Start Date
2026-08-21
Intervention End Date
2026-09-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcomes are support for hydrogen measured through voting intentions, project approval, and willingness to express support.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The main outcome family includes: a binary measure of whether the respondent supports the project in a referendum-style question; support on a 1-7 approval scale; and a binary measure of whether the respondent agrees to include their anonymous support in a support statement.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary outcomes include local acceptance, support under higher short-run energy costs, a willingness-to-pay bid experiment, perceived support among other respondents, post-treatment beliefs about hydrogen's benefits and safety, and open-ended responses on respondents' reasons for and against the project and their understanding of the treatment video.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Local acceptance is 1–7 support if the project were implemented near the respondent. Support under higher energy costs combines a 1–7 scale under a slight short-run cost increase with a dichotomous-choice willingness-to-pay bid question; given sample size, the WTP bid experiment is powered mainly for a pooled any-video-vs-control comparison rather than for all five arms separately, and will be analyzed accordingly with the bid level as a regressor. Perceived support among other respondents is an incentivized 0–100 belief about how many participants will join an anonymous support statement. Post-treatment beliefs about hydrogen (emissions, jobs, energy imports, safety) are 1–7 scales, analyzed individually and, where relevant, combined into standardized indices. Two open-ended items — reasons for/against the project, and (video arms) a free-text video summary — are secondary, qualitative, and summarized descriptively by arm, possibly with LLM-assisted classification.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is an online survey experiment in Austria. Respondents are randomly assigned to a control condition or to one of several short video-based information treatments. Outcomes are measured after the information treatment. The study estimates the causal effect of information on public acceptance of hydrogen.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is implemented by the survey software using computer-based individual-level random assignment.
Randomization Unit
Individual survey respondent.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2,500 individual respondents.
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,500 individual respondents.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approximately 500 respondents in the control group and approximately 500 respondents in each of the four treatment groups.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
With 500 respondents per group, the study has 80% power to detect a standardized effect of approximately 0.18 standard deviations for the continuous support outcome. For binary support outcomes, the minimum detectable effect is approximately 8.5-8.6 percentage points, depending on the baseline rate.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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