An Empirical Study on the Influence Path of Environmental Risk Perception on Behavioral Responses In China

Shan Gao, Weimin Li, Shuang Ling, Xin Dou and Xiaozhou Liu
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Shan Gao: School of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Weimin Li: School of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Shuang Ling: School of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Xin Dou: School of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Xiaozhou Liu: School of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-18

Abstract: In recent years, the outbreak of numerous environmental risk incidents aroused widespread public concern about the amplification mechanism of environmental risk in China. However, few studies have investigated the influence path of environmental risk perception on behavioral responses in Chinese context from a micro perspective. In this article, we develop a multidimensional path model from environmental risk perception to behavioral responses, which aims to investigate how the public’s environmental risk perception influence its different behavioral responses, including environmental radical behavior, environmental concern behavior and environmental protection behavior. A survey data from Chinese General Social Survey 2013 (CGSS2013), was used to test the model, including questions related to information channel (e.g., media use, interpersonal network), cognitive evaluation (e.g., environmental value, public’s evaluation of environmental governance) and environmental knowledge. The results indicate that both information channel factors and cognitive evaluation factors can significantly influence the progress that from environmental risk perception to behavioral responses, of which both media use and environmental value play the amplification role in the transform process, while interpersonal network and public’s evaluation of environmental governance would inhibit public’s risk perception transforming into environmental behavior. Besides, environmental knowledge displays a key bridge role between information channel factors and cognitive evaluation factors. This research findings also demonstrated the evolution paths of three environmental behaviors under the same level of risk perception, namely, risk transformation and diffusion, risk perception enhancement and risk attenuation respectively.

Keywords: environmental risk; risk perception; behavioral responses; influence path (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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