quo is maintained. That is, no clear nuclear dependency policy is in
place, and the tentative power use at the date of the survey (February
2013) is accepted.
Theoretically, in the forced choice scenario, the respondents must
choose one from conflictive alternatives, hence the preference should
change by resolution of cognitive dissonance. On the other hand, in
the non-forced choice scenario, the respondents can postpone decision-
making, hence the preference does not change by resolution of
cognitive dissonance. Therefore, the different preferences should be observed
in both scenarios (perhaps a more nuclear-oriented preference
in the forced-choice scenario).
Thus, the current study aims to demonstrate that the trade-off problem
in energy selection can be analyzed according to two different theoretical
traditions, namely, the theories of cognitive dissonance and
forced/non-forced choice. The former predicts that consumers suffer
from cognitive dissonance when they are forced to make a choice; the
latter predicts that the consumer surplus improves when they are
allowed not to make a choice.