Mi Lingyun, Zhao Jingjing, Xu Ting, Yang Hang, Lv Tao, Shang Ke, Qiao Yaning, Zhang Zhaopu
School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, University Road No.1, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province 221116, China.
School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, University Road No.1, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province 221116, China.
Resour Conserv Recycl. 2021 May;168:105467. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105467. Epub 2021 Feb 3.
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.
新冠疫情造成的社会影响和严重破坏引发了公众对生态环境保护问题的反思。然而，公众对新冠疫情的认知是否能促进亲环境行为意图（PEBI）尚未确定；这对于研究该疫情的生态意义至关重要。基于情感事件理论（AET），本研究探讨了新冠疫情应急认知影响公众亲环境行为意图的机制。在对873份公众问卷进行分析后，结果显示公众对新冠疫情应急的认知能显著促进亲环境行为意图。其中，应急应对的影响强于应急相关性。此外，新冠疫情引发的积极和消极环境情感反应在应急认知和亲环境行为意图之间起中介作用。而且，积极环境情感反应对家庭领域亲环境行为意图的正向影响更强。然而，消极环境情感反应在促进公共领域亲环境行为意图方面更为突出。本研究旨在通过建立新冠疫情与亲环境行为意图之间的联系来填补研究空白。研究结果可为政策制定者提供有用建议，以便在新冠疫情应急背后寻找促进公众亲环境行为意图的契机。
