Document is current

Article History

Received: 27 June 2024

Accepted: 4 November 2025

First Online: 1 December 2025

Declarations

:

: Because this study falls in the category where no institutional review board approval is required in Germany according to the guidelines of the German Psychological Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie, 2018), we did not seek ethical approval from the ethics committee. All of the respondents were of legal age and consented to participate in the study. The respondents were not reimbursed for their participation. At the beginning of the questionnaire, the participants were transparently informed about the purpose of the study and that it is of vital relevance to understand free opinions and attitudes towards alternative fuels. While we expressed that we would be glad if the participants shared their perspective with us, we emphasized that their participation was entirely voluntary and that they could quit the questionnaire at any time. We assured a high standard privacy protection and informed the respondents that none of the questionnaire answers can be referred to them as individuals.

: The raw data provided by the participants was stored in anonymized/aggregated form, which prevents the possibility of inferring details of individuals. The raw, anonymized/aggregated data can be made available on request for the purpose of further research by the authors or the Chair of Communication Science at RWTH Aachen University. The respondents were informed that the survey data was intended to be analyzed for scientific purposes solely by the Chair of Communication Science at RWTH Aachen University. Moreover, they were informed that the questionnaire answers could not be referred to them as individuals because of the high standard privacy protection. The present manuscript does not contain any individual details, videos, or images of individuals.

: The authors declare no competing interests.