Zhao Xinghua, Cheng Zheng
Research Center for Government Governance and Public Policy, Business School, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China, NO.88, Daxuenan Road, Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, 225127, China.
School of Political Science and Law, University of Jinan, No.336 Nanxinzhuangxi Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province, 250022, China.
Heliyon. 2024 May 24;10(11):e31927. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31927. eCollection 2024 Jun 15.
Academic studies on environmental pollution have convincingly acknowledged the salient relevance of ambient pollutant emissions on individual life satisfaction. However, an understanding of how the different dimensions of air pollution influence public self-assessment of their living condition is required. This research investigates whether objective pollutant emissions and subjective evaluation influence individual life satisfaction. The findings were based on data from the China Environment Yearbook and China Social Survey in 2019. The multi-level linear regression model found that air pollutants emissions, including particulate matter (PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO), failed to explain the variations in public life satisfaction because of the lag effect of public perception. A significant nexus between perceived air pollution and public life satisfaction was observed at a significance level of 0.01. Specially, as the perceived air pollution by the public increased by one-point, life satisfaction decreased by 0.22 on a scale of 1-10, on average. Heterogeneous analysis based on income further suggested the salient negative effect of PM emissions on life satisfaction only occurred in the high-income group. The findings were robust after various methodological analyses. This study has theoretical implications for understanding the effects of air pollution on public subjective perception and provides guidance for how the government can manage the relationship between environmental governance and life satisfaction.
关于环境污染的学术研究已令人信服地承认了环境污染物排放与个人生活满意度之间的显著相关性。然而，我们还需要了解空气污染的不同维度如何影响公众对其生活状况的自我评估。本研究调查了客观污染物排放和主观评价是否会影响个人生活满意度。研究结果基于《中国环境年鉴》和2019年中国社会调查的数据。多层次线性回归模型发现，由于公众认知的滞后效应，包括颗粒物（PM）和二氧化硫（SO）在内的空气污染物排放无法解释公众生活满意度的变化。在0.01的显著性水平上，观察到感知空气污染与公众生活满意度之间存在显著联系。具体而言，公众感知的空气污染每增加1分，生活满意度在1至10分的量表上平均下降0.22分。基于收入的异质性分析进一步表明，PM排放对生活满意度的显著负面影响仅发生在高收入群体中。经过各种方法分析后，研究结果依然稳健。本研究对于理解空气污染对公众主观认知的影响具有理论意义，并为政府如何管理环境治理与生活满意度之间的关系提供了指导。
