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How Perceived Exposure to Environmental Harm Influences Environmental Behavior in Urban China

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Abstract

Rapid environmental degradation in China makes understanding how perceived exposure to environmental harm influences environmental attitudes and participation in pro-environmental behaviors among the Chinese people crucial. We used a nation-wide survey dataset in urban China to test two hypotheses: experiencing environmental harm directly affects environmental behavior; environmental attitudes mediate the relationship between experiencing environmental harm and environmental behavior. We found respondents who experienced environmental harm had more pro-environmental attitudes. Experiencing environmental harm positively influenced pro-environmental behavior both directly and indirectly through the mediation of pro-environmental attitudes. Among the pro-environmental behaviors, environmental litigation was most strongly related with exposure to environmental harm. Our results suggest that more participation in pro-environmental behaviors may be expected as rapid economic development increases public exposure to environmental harm in urban China.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the General Social Survey of China project for providing the data. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticisms on an earlier version of this paper. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from National Science Foundation and Giorgio Ruffolo Fellowship in Sustainability Science at Harvard University, as well as AgBioResearch at Michigan State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Saunders Hall, Campus Box 3220, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Xiaodong Chen

  2. Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Program, Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Box 7646, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    M. Nils Peterson

  3. Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Vanessa Hull & Jianguo Liu

  4. Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Chuntian Lu

  5. Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Dayong Hong

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  1. Xiaodong Chen
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Correspondence to Xiaodong Chen.

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Chen, X., Peterson, M.N., Hull, V. et al. How Perceived Exposure to Environmental Harm Influences Environmental Behavior in Urban China. AMBIO 42, 52–60 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0335-9

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