School of Society and Law, Shandong Women's University, Jinan, China.
School of Economics and Management, Nantong University, Nantong, China.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Nov 21;24(1):3237. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20721-4.
Environmental awareness serves as an intrinsic motivator for individuals' engagement in environmental protection behaviors, and social media platforms can foster such awareness. Drawing on the 2018 China General Social Survey data (CGSS 2018), this study employs non-parametric and semi-parametric approaches within the framework of marginal treatment effect (MTE) to examine the influence of WeChat usage on the environmental awareness of Chinese residents. The findings unveil significant heterogeneity in the impact of frequent WeChat usage on individuals' levels of environmental awareness. Through estimation of the average treatment effect, treatment group average treatment effect, and non-treatment group average treatment effect, the study reveals that WeChat exerts a stronger positive influence on the environmental awareness of residents with a high propensity for using the platform, while it has no discernible effect on the environmental awareness of residents with a low inclination to engage with WeChat. The growth of environmental knowledge facilitated by WeChat plays a crucial role in shaping environmental awareness. Furthermore, this research underscores the influence of real-life social network structures on information exchange within the WeChat platform in China. This observation suggests that WeChat transcends its role as a mere information transmission tool and becomes intricately woven into the social network fabric of its users, thus mirroring certain characteristics of information dissemination within offline social networks. These insights imply that targeted strategies can be devised to bolster residents' environmental awareness by capitalizing on the interconnectedness of real-life social networks and leveraging the information exchange potential of WeChat. By doing so, it is possible to enhance environmental protection endeavors and encourage more sustainable behaviors among individuals.
环境意识是个人参与环境保护行为的内在动机，社交媒体平台可以培养这种意识。本研究利用 2018 年中国综合社会调查（CGSS2018）的数据，采用非参数和半参数方法，在边际处理效应（MTE）框架内，检验了微信使用对中国居民环境意识的影响。研究结果揭示了频繁使用微信对个人环境意识水平的影响存在显著异质性。通过估计平均处理效应、处理组平均处理效应和非处理组平均处理效应，研究表明，微信对平台使用倾向高的居民的环境意识有更强的正向影响，而对微信使用倾向低的居民的环境意识没有明显影响。微信促进环境知识的增长在塑造环境意识方面起着关键作用。此外，本研究强调了现实生活中社会网络结构对中国微信平台内信息交流的影响。这一观察结果表明，微信不仅是一种信息传递工具，它还与用户的社会网络紧密交织，反映了线下社交网络中信息传播的某些特征。这些发现表明，可以通过利用现实生活中社会网络的互联性和微信的信息交流潜力，制定有针对性的策略来增强居民的环境意识。通过这种方式，可以加强环境保护工作，鼓励个人采取更可持续的行为。
