Has the public habituated to the haze in China?

Abstract

The concept of haze habituation was proposed based on haze perception and behavior in this paper. This study employed factor analysis and Potential Conflict Index (PCI) to analyze the dimensions, degrees, and internal differences of the public's haze habituation. Then, K-means clustering algorithm was applied to classify the public into four categories. The entropy method was used to quantitatively evaluate the public's haze habituation, and the natural breakpoint method was used to grade it into five levels. Finally, an ordered logistic regression model was chosen to analyze the influencing factors of the public's haze habituation. The results indicate that: (1) The public's haze habituation can be measured from five dimensions: protective behavior, haze reduction behavior, haze attention, life impact perception, and health impact perception. The public had the same views on protective behavior, haze reduction behavior, life impact perception, and health impact perception. However, there is a wide divergence among the public on the haze attention; (2) Based on the above five dimensions, the public can be divided into the protective sensitive group, attention sensitive group, health sensitive group, and environmental protection sensitive group; (3) Generally, the public has a low haze habituation where the protective behavior, haze reduction behavior, and health impact perception are the crucial elements; (4) Gender, self-health assessment, and travel mode have a significant positive impact on the public's haze habituation, respectively. Age, the family with elders or children, and annual family income have a significant negative impact on the public's haze habituation, respectively.

Keywords: China; Haze; K-means clustering algorithm; Natural breakpoint method; Perception; Potential Conflict Index (PCI).