Measuring social licence: What and who determines public acceptability of aquaculture in New Zealand

Highlights

• In this survey of aquaculture’s social licence, quality of contact strongly influenced public acceptance of a company.
• Cultural impacts were also a predictor of social licence scores, but environmental, economic and social impacts were not.
• Social licence scores depend on who is surveyed, so it is important to consider who to ask about social licence.
• We recommend surveying people affected by the company or industry of interest, using social media and other strategies.

Keywords

Contact quality, Fairness, Shellfish, Finfish, Salmon, Social media