How does COVID-19 emergency cognition influence public pro-environmental behavioral intentions? An affective event perspective

Lingyun Mi; Jingjing Zhao; Ting Xu; Hang Yang; Tao Lv; Ke Shang; Yaning Qiao; Zhaopu Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105467

How does COVID-19 emergency cognition influence public pro-environmental behavioral intentions? An affective event perspective

Resour Conserv Recycl. 2021 May:168:105467. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105467. Epub 2021 Feb 3.

Authors

Lingyun Mi¹, Jingjing Zhao¹, Ting Xu¹, Hang Yang¹, Tao Lv¹, Ke Shang², Yaning Qiao², Zhaopu Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, University Road No.1, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province 221116, China.
² School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, University Road No.1, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province 221116, China.

Abstract

Social impacts and serious damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in public introspection on the issue of ecological environmental protection. However, whether the public cognition of COVID-19 can promote pro-environmental behavioral intentions (PEBI) has not yet been determined; this is crucial for studying the ecological significance of the pandemic. Based on the affective events theory (AET), this study investigated the mechanism by which COVID-19 emergency cognition influences public PEBI. Following an analysis of 873 public questionnaires, the results reveal that public cognition of COVID-19 emergency can significantly promote PEBI. Among them, the effect of emergency coping is stronger than that of emergency relevance. Besides, the positive and negative environmental affective reactions aroused by COVID-19 pandemic play a mediating role between the emergency cognition and PEBI. Moreover, the positive environmental affective reactions show a stronger positive effect on household-sphere PEBI. However, the negative environmental affective reactions are more prominent in promoting public-sphere PEBI. This research aims to bridge a research gap by establishing a link between COVID-19 pandemic and PEBI. The findings can provide useful recommendations for policymakers to find the opportunity behind the COVID-19 emergency to promote public PEBI.

Keywords: Affective events theory; COVID-19; Event cognition; Pro-environmental behavioral intentions; Public health emergency; Structural equation model.