Epistemic Beliefs, Perceived Responsibilities, and Information Asymmetry in Energy Modelling - a Survey with Modellers

This dataset contains the survey data supporting the following article:

Bock, Franziska, and Stefan Pfenninger-Lee. 2025. ‘Rarely Pure and Never Simple: Exploring Perceptions of Truth and Objectivity in Energy Modelling and Scenarios’. Energy Research & Social Science 127 (September): 104229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2025.104229. 

The data capture 166 responses to a questionnaire examining attitudes and epistemic beliefs about mathematical modelling and scenario development for long-term energy planning and climate policy. It includes 18 Likert-scale statements across nine themes informed by established instruments on epistemic beliefs. Each theme pairs opposing statements to capture nuanced opinions. Further, the dataset includes the respondents' perspectives on the division of responsibilities as well as the information asymmetry between a modeller and a policymaker, and open-ended questions for qualitative feedback. Demographic information was collected to reflect diversity in modelling roles, disciplinary backgrounds, and regional contexts.