Exploring mechanisms affecting environmental risk coping behaviors: evidence from China

Abstract

Environmental risk issues pose a threat to human life and well-being. In order to reduce environmental risks, environmental risk response strategies have become increasingly vital. As the group most affected by environmental risks, the public environmental risk coping behaviors affect the effectiveness of environmental risk management. However, the public adoption of such behaviors mainly depends on their willingness. Therefore, the key to effective governance lies in guiding the public to voluntarily adopt appropriate environmental risk coping behaviors. The theory of environmental psychology provides relevant references for this. The internal psychological motivations of the public (including attitudes and subjective norms etc.) affect their choices of environmental risk behavior. The main purpose of this research is to explore the determinants underlying environmental risk coping behaviors using extending the theory of planned behavior by additional constructs (trust, risk perception, interaction satisfaction). The research applies a questionnaire survey method to collect data from the public living in the vicinity of two locations in China-an industrial area and a waste incineration plant in a Chinese city. The result of SEM shows that the public's trust in governments has a positive influence on the intention to collaborate, while the public's trust in the government and enterprises is negatively correlated with their intention to engage in confrontational behavior. Also, there is a positive correlation between confrontational intention and confrontational behavior, while the intention to cooperate may not necessarily result in collaborative behavior. Risk perception is not related to trust and the intention to collaborate, but it positively affects the intention to confront. The reason for the public to willingly take collaborative actions is not because they have perceived a high level of risk, and the public's high trust in the government can enhance their intention to take collaborative actions. It is thus clear that government credibility plays an important guiding role in public risk responsive behavior. The research findings provide policy recommendations for guiding public environmental risk coping behavior.

Keywords: Environmental risk coping behaviors; Public trust in enterprises; Public trust in government; Risk perception; Theory of planned behavior.