Public response to the rare earth industries in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Hassan, Azman, Tengku Ismail, Tengku Hanidza, Saari, Mohd Yusof, Abu Samah, Mohd Armi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2015
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43043/1/1-s2.0-S1878029615006052-main.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/43043/; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878029615006052

This paper provides a detailed analysis of public response to the rare earth industry in Malaysia. House-to-house interview was conducted in 2013 (N=1097). Males were more acceptable of the RE industry compared to female (p<0.05) and the government workers were less acceptable of the risk (p<.0.05). Only 7.02% of the respondents reported that they will not accept the RE industry. The principle component analysis on 11 risk perception attributes identified three factors: Risk, Benefit, No government confidence and newness. Multiple regression analysis indicated that public acceptance of the RE industry could significantly be predicted by the ‘Risk’ and ‘Benefit’ factors