Influencing Factors of Environmental Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Epidemic in China

The spread of COVID-19 is having a serious impact on socioeconomic development, and increased environmental risk perception (ERP). ERP provide new ideas for the orderly recovery of society. However, there have been studies that often pay attention to individual factors, and less concerned about the external environment. In fact, ERP will be affected by the external environment and individual factors. We used a Python script to collect 65,277 valid Weibo comments during the COVID-19 epidemic in China to assess urban residents’ environmental risk perception (ERP). SnowNLP emotion analysis was used to measure the ERP of 366 urban in China, and the structural proportion characteristics and spatial-temporal differentiation of ERP were analyzed. Then, an order logistic regression model was used to investigate the relationship between economic level, social security, medical facilities and ERP. The study investigated the Chinese cities have a higher ERP during the COVID-19 period, and it shows marked fluctuations. As COVID-19 spreads, the ERP shows a distribution pattern of “high in the southeast and low in the northwest” with Hu line as the boundary and “from high to low” with Wuhan as the high value center. COVID-19 serves as catalysts for ERP, the impact of COVID-19 is enhanced after socioeconomic factors are considered. The economic level effectively regulates ERP, except the stage of accelerating diffusion. ERP is effectively stabilized by social security and medical facilities. After considering all the variables simultaneously, we found that the mitigation effect of social security and medical facilities on ERP has improved.

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Environmental risk perception and its influence on well-being

Chinese Management Studies ◽

10.1108/cms-12-2016-0261 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 35-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ge Xu ◽

Xiangnan Feng ◽

Yiwei Li ◽

Xiaohong Chen ◽

Jianmin Jia

Keyword(s):

Risk Perception ◽

Environmental Risk ◽

Questionnaire Survey ◽

Latent Variables ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Socioeconomic Development ◽

Well Being ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Content Type ◽

Environmental Risk Perception

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effects of environmental risk perception on the evaluation of socioeconomic development and subjective well-being in China. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was conducted, and data were collected from 408 participants of four major universities and government organizations in Changsha, China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the collected data and to test the hypotheses with regard to the relationship among latent variables. Bayesian method was used as the statistical inference procedure. Findings Results show that environmental risk perception has a direct negative influence on perceived socioeconomic development and on subjective total well-being (i.e. both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being). The perceived socioeconomic development has a direct positive effect on the subjective total well-being; thus, it plays a partial mediation role between environmental risk perception and subjective total well-being. Research limitations/implications Findings suggest that the environment protection act of the government and their contribution to socioeconomic development will significantly affect the total well-being of people. The empirical analysis is based on survey data; thus, this study may suffer the common problems of questionnaire survey. Social implications Promoting pro-environment and health behaviors is important in developing a happy society. Originality/value This study demonstrates a significant negative effect of environmental risk perception on the total well-being of people according to SEM approach. This study determines two independent paths for government and policy makers to increase the total well-being of people in China, namely, increasing socioeconomic value to people and controlling and reducing environmental threats.

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Research on the impact of environmental risk perception and public participation on evaluation of local government environmental regulation implementation behavior

Environmental Challenges ◽

10.1016/j.envc.2021.100213 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 100213

Author(s):

Haiyun Liu ◽

Guiju Zhu ◽

Yue Li

Keyword(s):

Risk Perception ◽

Local Government ◽

Public Participation ◽

Environmental Regulation ◽

Environmental Risk ◽

Environmental Risk Perception ◽

The Impact

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Religious Identity and Public Pro-Environmental Behavior in China: The Mediating Role of Environmental Risk Perception

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel11040165 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 165 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sheng Zeng ◽

Lin Wu ◽

Tianyuan Liu

Keyword(s):

Risk Perception ◽

Environmental Risk ◽

Religious Identity ◽

Environmental Behavior ◽

Group Differences ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Environmental Risk Perception ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Although the positive relationship between religion and environmental behavior has aroused heated debate, empirical research on the relationship between religion and public pro-environmental behavior is still relatively insufficient. This paper aims to explore the group differences in the influence of religious identity on public pro-environmental behavior and the mediating role of environmental risk perception in religious identity and public pro-environmental behavior. Using the Chinese General Social Survey data of 2013 for empirical analysis, this study’s results show that there are group differences in the impact of religious identity on public pro-environmental behavior. Women with a religious identity are more willing to engage in public pro-environmental behavior than those without a religious identity. Additionally, people over the age of 45 with a religious identity are more willing to participate in public pro-environmental behavior than those without a religious identity. Furthermore, political participants with a religious identity are more willing to practice public pro-environmental behavior than those without a religious identity. In addition, we found that environmental risk perception can act as partial mediation in religion and public pro-environmental behavior. In other words, religious identities are deeply embedded in local political and social culture. In order to correctly understand the relationship between religion and public pro-environmental behavior, it is necessary to consider religious identity in a specific cultural background.

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Religious Beliefs and Public Pro-Environmental Behavior in China: the Mediating Role of Environmental Risk Perception

10.20944/preprints202001.0284.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sheng Zeng ◽

Lin Wu ◽

Tianyuan Liu

Keyword(s):

Risk Perception ◽

Environmental Risk ◽

Religious Beliefs ◽

Environmental Behavior ◽

Group Differences ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Environmental Risk Perception ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Although the positive relationship between religion and environmental behavior is well-argued, empirical research about the relationship between religion and public pro-environmental behavior is relatively lacking. This paper aims to explore the group differences in the influence of religion on public pro-environmental behavior and the mediating role of environmental risk perception in religion and public pro-environmental behavior. Using the Chinese General Social Survey data in 2013 for empirical analysis, this study’s results show that there are group differences in the impact of religion on public pro-environmental behavior. Women with religious beliefs are more willing to engage in public pro-environmental behavior than those without religious beliefs. Religious believers over the age of 45 are more willing to participate in public pro-environmental behavior than those without religious beliefs. Political participants with religious beliefs are more willing to practice public pro-environmental behavior than those without religious beliefs. In addition, we found that environmental risk perception can act as partial mediation in religious and public pro-environmental behavior. In other words, religious beliefs are deeply embedded in local political and social culture. In order to correctly understand the relationship between religion and public pro-environmental behavior, it is necessary to consider religion in a specific cultural background.

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