Hydrogen is gaining interest as a clean energy source from both governments and fossil
fuel companies. For hydrogen projects to succeed, securing public acceptability is crucial,
with trust in the implementing actors playing a central role. Drawing from reputation
management and attribution theory, we experimentally evaluated whether people's
perceptions of energy companies wanting to start producing hydrogen for sustainability
reasons differ based on two features of hydrogen production. Specifically, we examined
the influence of (1) the type of hydrogen (blue versus green) and (2) the energy company's
history in energy production (fossil fuels versus renewables) on perceptions of how much
companies are engaged in reputation management, as well as on trust -both in general
and based on integrity and competence. We further explored whether perceived reputation
management -the belief that companies adopt hydrogen mainly to enhance their image-
explains these effects on trust, and whether the experimental factors also impact public
acceptability of hydrogen production itself. Results indicated that people perceived the
company with a history of working with fossil fuels as trying to improve its reputation
more than one associated with renewables, and trusted it less. Furthermore, perceived
reputation management explained the lower (general and integrity-based) trust people had
for companies with a past in fossil fuels. For public acceptability of hydrogen, the
company's history was not relevant, with green hydrogen being more acceptable than
blue, regardless of which company produced it. We discuss these findings in relation to
the literature on public perceptions of hydrogen.