The article presents a review of the research on green hydrogen from the social sciences, identifying its main lines of research, its problems, and the relevant challenges due to the benefits and impacts that this energy vector has on energy transitions and climate change. The review analyzes a corpus of 78 articles indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS, published between 1997 and 2022. The review identified three research areas related to green hydrogen and the challenges for the social sciences in the future: (a) risks, socio-environmental impacts, and public perception; (b) public policies and regulation and (c) social acceptance and willingness to use associated technologies. Our results show that Europe and Asia lead the research on green hydrogen from the social sciences. Also, most of the works focus on the area of public policy and regulation and social acceptance. Instead, the field of social perception of risk is much less developed. We found that little research from the social sciences has focused on assessments of the social and environmental impacts of hydrogen on local communities and indigenous groups, as well as the participation of local authorities in rural locations. Likewise, there are few integrated studies (technical and social) that would allow a better assessment of hydrogen and cleaner energy transitions. Finally, the lack of familiarity with this technology in many cases constitutes a limitation when evaluating its acceptance.

An understanding of human attitudes towards wildlife can be an essential element in the success or failure of a conservation initiative, policy or practice and represents one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species. Despite the ecosystem services bats provide, they often are a socially stigmatized group, misperceived and even hunted. This problem has been on the increase as a result of the Covid‐19 pandemic. We examined how aesthetic appeal and informational factors could influence human attitudes towards bats in a survey of 1966 participants from Spanish‐speaking countries. Gender, educational level, religiousness and previous experiences with bats were relevant variables to understand attitudes towards them. The results indicate that both aesthetic and informational stimuli increase the positive responses, reducing the negatives on the participants' attitudes. Our results show the importance of public attitudes to achieve conservation goals, especially in the context of human‐wildlife conflict. Bats are not charismatic animals and are still surrounded in mystery; however, our findings could benefit bat conservation plans, allowing the development of new communication strategies both locally and nationally and increasing public acceptance that will facilitate bat conservation.

Air pollution stands as a primary environmental factor influencing mortality globally. Despite its significance, individuals frequently struggle to assess the risks associated with polluted environments. This paper delves into the psychological mechanisms that contribute to the discrepancy between public perception of air quality and objective measurements. Through an extensive literature review spanning several decades, six fundamental heuristics that underpin misperceptions of air quality are identified and examined. The article further explores the theoretical and practical implications of acknowledging these biases in the development of urban environmental policies. By addressing judgmental biases, urban planners can improve the communication of risk information among lay people and ensure that environmental improvements are acknowledged and valued by all members of the community.

Cities in southern Chile face serious environmental pollution due to extensive use of firewood for heating and cooking. Lack of access to cleaner energy fuel, low-efficiency building materials, and a cold climate exacerbate the problem, which increases the deforestation of the native forests of Patagonia. While environmental justice research has established clear links between air pollution hazards and vulnerable populations, little is known about how this relationship influences the risk perception and adaptation strategies among all urban residents. This study assesses social vulnerability variables, indoor environments, and air pollution adaptation strategies in households located in the city of Coyhaique by monitoring households’ temperatures and conducting semistructured interviews with residents. Focused on interactions between people and their indoor and outdoor environments, this study reveals the microscale hazards and difficulties in overcoming the dilemma between breathing clean air and cheap heating as additional dimensions of environmental injustice. Keywords: air pollution, air quality perception, Coyhaique, environmental justice, firewood, spatial inequality.

Wood-burning pollution is a severe problem in southern Chile, where every winter, people are exposed to unhealthy ambient fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentrations. Urban air quality is a major concern for health officials, but public awareness campaigns tend to focus on outdoor hazards. Our understanding of how residents are exposed and perceive air pollution risks in their homes remains incomplete. This study explores the ability of participants to perceive indoor air quality. We collected data on 81 households, combining perceptions of air quality with objective measurements of PM_2.5. Residents’ evaluations of air quality were systematically compared to inspectors’ evaluations in order to examine the home halo effect. We found that residents tended to overestimate air quality in their homes. We discuss how our data supported the existence of a home halo effect, but also point out the possibility that individuals’ ability to perceive air quality in indoor spaces is limited by other factors.

Despite the benefits that bats offer the ecosystem, these animals are feared and attacked. The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated this situation. Today there is an urgent need to address the human-bat conflict to develop conservation policies. Understanding peoples’ attitudes towards bats are critical for this process. This study aimed to design the Bats Attitudes Standard Scale (BAtSS) and to analyze its psychometric properties. We developed an initial version of the scale in which we established the content validity; we analyzed the items and structure in a pilot sample. In the next phase, we examined psychometric properties in a sample of 1639 Chileans. The final BAtSS consists of 34 Likert-type items configured in an oblique-hierarchical structure of four factors (scientistic, positivistic, negativistic, and myths) and three facets (emotional negativistic, behavioral negativistic, and cognitive negativistic). It presents adequate internal consistency, and the analysis of concurrent validity confirms the scale’s capacity to discriminate between groups. Women and participants with a lower level of education are more negativistic and less positivistic. People with a higher level of education have a less mythological view of bats. We also analyzed the items under the assumptions of item response theory (IRT).