Starting with the answers, perceptions about energy system risks

Persistent social conflict over energy issues, and gaps in perception among energy researchers, led the author to seek a top-down model that would adequately describe these phenomena. The model chosen (grid-group model of the cultural anthropologist) is called the cultural bias model by the author, and it describes several clusterings of human values (cultural categories). This model is used to give insight into these conflicts, and is also used to explain perceptions of risks. The idea of what constitutes a problem (or risk) and what constitutes a solution, is strongly dependent on the cultural category of the individual. Rather than seek out who is right and who is wrong, the author suggests a multirationality view of energy conflicts as a first step to better analysis and to conflict resolution.