About this Research Topic
The Topic Editors would like to warmly welcome members of The International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS) and other non-member researchers to contribute to this dedicated Research Topic.
Cognitive biases occur when people process and interpret information, affecting decisions and judgments. The concept of cognitive bias is usually employed as a tool for rechecking and redirecting decisions. The world’s energy system needs to be greened for sustainable development. However, green energy development is fundamentally established upon people’s knowledge about its comparative advantages over other types of energy development. Whether an energy candidate is truly ‘green’ depends on many factors that encompass costs and benefits in various dimensions and range from inputs to outputs along multiple lifecycles. Cognitive biases can lead to misleading language use and further result in undesirable outcomes.
As the process for energy greenness is extremely complicated, it is not unusual to expect the debate over the choices of green energy development to continue. However, from a social point of view, any overwhelming ignorance of a cognitive bias cannot be tolerated long-term, because such ignorance will give room for path dependence, abuse of power, inequalities and drowning of innovative ideas that might eventually grow into genuine green solutions. As such, this Research Topic is focused on exploring the cognitive biases in green energy domain within the whole society or its sub-communities.
This Research Topic is intended as a state-of-the-art resource for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers interested in studying green energy development all over the world. Topics of interest for this issue collection include, but are not limited to:
• Methodology of comparing the greenness of energies
• Conceptual refining or redefining of green energy development
• Cognitive biases on green energy development in distinguished communities with special attention suggested to the scientific community
• Shaping effects of language use in green energy promotion
• Causes and social effects of cognitive biases on energy greenness
• The application of “bounded rationality” in green energy policymaking
• Strategies to overcome cognitive biases in green energy development
• Technology foresight in the energy transition
• Power struggles in the green energy domain
• Critical analysis of green energy planning and development
Keywords: green energy, energy policy, energy transition, cognitive biases
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
