Cultural worldviews and waste sorting among urban Chinese dwellers: the mediating role of environmental risk perception.

Objective: Waste sorting has received considerable attention in recent decades. However, research on the mechanisms underlying the relationships among cultural worldview, environmental risk perception, and waste sorting is rather scarce. This study aims to explore the cultural worldviews, environmental risk perception, and waste sorting among urban Chinese and their mechanisms. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 744 urban Chinese residents (371 men and 373 women). A questionnaire was utilized to measure cultural worldviews, environmental risk perception, and waste sorting. Pearson correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were used to examine the relationship between cultural worldviews, perceptions of environmental risk, and waste sorting. Results: Waste sorting had a relatively insignificant negative relationship with fatalism and individualism. The correlation between environmental risk perception and cultural worldviews was negative except for egalitarianism, and the correlation between hierarchy and environmental risk perception was higher than the others, while individualism was higher than fatalism. Heightened environmental risk perception mediates the relationship between egalitarianism and waste sorting. Reduced environmental risk perception mediates the relationship between hierarchy and waste sorting, and mediates the relationship between individualism and waste sorting. Conclusion: These new findings provide initial support for the mediating role of environmental risk perception in the relationship between cultural worldviews and waste sorting. Both theoretical and practical implications for understanding the psychological mechanisms of waste sorting are discussed.

Harmony with nature: Disentanglement the influence of ecological perception and adaptation on sustainable development and circular economy goals in country.

From the perspective of ecosystem attributes, this research was conducted to explore the impact of people's adaptation and response to their perception of environmental risks on their preference for sustainable development strategies and the realization of a circular economy based on Social Judgment Theory and the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory. To achieve the goal, three substudies were conducted using questionnaire surveys-the first substudy aimed to examine the influence of ecological attributes on environmental risk perception (ERP). The second substudy attempted to understand the intricate connection between ERP and justice, while the third study explored the relationship between justice and SDS (sustainable development strategies) and CEG (realization of a circular economy). The results indicate the following: (1) The first substudy reveals that ecological attributes impact environmental risk perception (ERP), with different environmental values exerting distinct influences. (2) The second substudy suggests that ERP facilitates the realization of social, environmental, and ecological justice, but people's preference for a specific economic growth strategy will affect their tendency to realize justice. (3) The third substudy shows that sustainability strategies (i.e., sustainable production, consumption, and use) mediate the relationship between justice and circular economy goals (CEG). Among the three strategies, sustainable use plays the most significant mediating role. The research outcomes underscore the importance of prioritizing sustainable use in future research in theory and practice.

The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study.

Environmental health literacy (EHL) includes knowledge of health effects due to environmental exposure and skills to protect health from environmental risks. This study investigated some aspects about EHL of the Italian adult population. Data were collected through questionnaires (n = 672) and analysed through multivariable logistic regression models. Results showed that participants with incomplete/insufficient self-perceived knowledge of health effects due to environmental risks verified less information about this topic (adjOR = 0.38 (CI95% 0.25-0.59)/0.09 (0.04-0.21); p < 0.001/<0.001), potentially spreading fake news. The self-perceived exposure to pollution was higher in participants living in towns than in rural areas (small, medium, big towns adjOR = 2.37 (1.41-3.97), 2.10 (1.11-3.96), 3.11 (1.53-6.31); p = 0.001, 0.022, 0.002) and lower in participants with incomplete/insufficient knowledge about pollution effects (adjOR = 0.54 (0.32-0.92)/0.30 (0.13-0.67); p = 0.022/0.004), confirming that knowledge is essential to achieve awareness. Since insufficient self-perceived knowledge of pollution effects was negatively associated with the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours (adjOR = 0.37 (0.15-0.90); p = 0.028), EHL was proven to be a virtuous behaviour promoter. Finally, a lack of institutional support, time and cost were identified as barriers to pro-environmental behaviours. This study provided useful data to design prevention programmes, underlined some barriers to pro-environmental behaviours and highlighted the need to promote attitudes and behaviours aimed at contrasting environmental pollution, thus protecting human health.

Influence of Appeal Type and Message Framing on Residents' Intent to Engage in Pro-Environmental Behavior.

In this intervention study, we examined the effects and psychological processes of different types of messaging intended to promote waste-separation behavior on the intent of residents to separate household waste and to engage in other pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). Based on three studies (one survey with 76 residents and two experiments with 446 residents) in China, our results revealed that environmental appeals increased residents' intent to separate waste and engage in other PEBs, whereas monetary incentives had no effect. Although the main effects of the framing of messages on the intent to separate waste and other PEBs were not significant, we found an interactive effect of appeal type and message framing. When matched with loss framing, an environmental appeal indirectly generated a stronger positive impact by stimulating an individual's environmental risk perception. When monetary incentives matched with loss framing, individual pro-environmental identity weakened, thereby inhibiting the positive impact on intent to separate waste. With this study, we provide important theoretical support for the selection and optimization of waste-separation intervention strategies and guidance for persuading residents to engage in more PEBs.

The Impact of the Gain-Loss Frame on College Students' Willingness to Participate in the Individual Low-Carbon Behavior Rewarding System (ILBRS): The Mediating Role of Environmental Risk Perception.

Since Chinese households account for more than half of the country's total carbon emissions, efforts focused on consumption will be key to reaching carbon reduction targets. The Individual Low-carbon Behavior Rewarding System (ILBRS) is an emerging mechanism in China that encourages the public to develop a low-carbon lifestyle and it is critical to look for various approaches to enhance the public's willingness to participate in it. The framing effect has been widely used to study pro-environmental behavior as a low-cost nudge. We used an online questionnaire (N = 320) to investigate how framing information (loss and gain framing) influenced people's willingness to participate in the ILBRS through the mediation of environmental risk perception. The results indicated that the public's willingness to participate in the ILBRS under the loss frame was significantly higher than the gain frame. Furthermore, environmental risk perception played a mediating role in the proceedings. Based on our findings, the designers and promoters of ILBRS systems could employ loss-frame information to promote the public's willingness to participate in the ILBRS and drive more people to live a low-carbon life in the process of mechanism construction, information communication, and operational promotion.

Predicting acceptance and adoption of renewable energy community solutions: the prosumer psychology.

Background: This paper, in the frame of social acceptance of renewable energies and innovative community-based production and consumption models, aims at supporting a data-driven approach able to deal with climate change and identify and quantify the psycho-sociological dimensions and factors that could support the transition from a technology-driven approach to a consumer-driven approach throughout the emerging " prosumer business models". In addition to the already existing Social Acceptance dimensions, this paper tries to identify a purely individual psychological fourth dimension to understand the processes and factors that underlie individual acceptance and adoption of new renewable energy business models, with the realization of a Prosumer Acceptance Index. Methods: Questionnaire data collection has been performed throughout an online survey platform, combining standardized and ad-hoc questions adapted for the research purposes, based on the developed theoretical model. To identify the main factors (individual/social) influencing the relation with renewable energy technology adoption, a Factorial Analysis has been conducted to identify the latent variables that are related to each other. Linear regression has been conducted to identify and quantify the factors that could better predict behavioural intention to become a prosumer. Results: Five latent psychological factors were revealed: concern about environmental issues, interest in energy sharing, concern on climate change, social influence and impact on bill cost. Three variables were found to significantly measure and predict the scores of the "Acceptance in becoming a prosumer" ad hoc scale: attitude, economic incentive and age. Conclusions: This research can facilitate policymakers and stakeholders to better understand which relevant psycho-sociological factors are intervening in the renewable energy technology acceptance processes and what and how specifically target when proposing change towards sustainable energy production and consumption.

Influencing Factors of Environmental Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Epidemic in China.

The spread of COVID-19 is having a serious impact on socioeconomic development, and increased environmental risk perception (ERP). ERP provide new ideas for the orderly recovery of society. However, there have been studies that often pay attention to individual factors, and less concerned about the external environment. In fact, ERP will be affected by the external environment and individual factors. We used a Python script to collect 65,277 valid Weibo comments during the COVID-19 epidemic in China to assess urban residents' environmental risk perception (ERP). SnowNLP emotion analysis was used to measure the ERP of 366 urban in China, and the structural proportion characteristics and spatial-temporal differentiation of ERP were analyzed. Then, an order logistic regression model was used to investigate the relationship between economic level, social security, medical facilities and ERP. The study investigated the Chinese cities have a higher ERP during the COVID-19 period, and it shows marked fluctuations. As COVID-19 spreads, the ERP shows a distribution pattern of "high in the southeast and low in the northwest" with Hu line as the boundary and "from high to low" with Wuhan as the high value center. COVID-19 serves as catalysts for ERP, the impact of COVID-19 is enhanced after socioeconomic factors are considered. The economic level effectively regulates ERP, except the stage of accelerating diffusion. ERP is effectively stabilized by social security and medical facilities. After considering all the variables simultaneously, we found that the mitigation effect of social security and medical facilities on ERP has improved.

Environmental Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Central Taiwan.

Due to traffic and industrial and seasonal air pollution, wearing masks outside the home has long been a daily habit for many people in Taiwan. After the emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which has an incubation period of up to 14 days, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing was advised to reduce exposure to this new environmental risk. This study investigates open and semi-open spaces in three districts in central Taiwan, using a non-participant observation method, with the aim of understanding people's mask-wearing behavior. The results indicate that mask-wearing rates were higher in urban areas than in rural ones and among females than males. By age cohort, mask-wearing was most prevalent among young adults and middle-aged people and least prevalent among minors, with the elderly occupying a middle position. Masks were also more likely to be worn in semi-open spaces than in open ones. This study enriches our understanding of environmental risk perception of the pandemic and of public perceptions, which are vital to increasing the adoption of preventative measures.

Environmental Risk Perception, Risk Culture, and Pro-Environmental Behavior.

Mixed evidence exists regarding the relationship between environmental risk perception and pro-environmental behavior. This study uses an existing online survey conducted by the Center of Ecological Civilization (CEC) of China University of Geosciences from December 2015 to March 2016 and examines how cultural bias influences environmental risk perception and behavior. We found that an individual's pro-environmental behavior is not only influenced by environmental risk perception, but also by his or her cultural worldviews. Built on culture theory (CT), our empirical results suggest that young Chinese people are more located in "high-group" culture, where egalitarian culture and hierarchical culture dominate. The higher scores of hierarchical and egalitarian cultures of Chinese youth, the more likely they are to protect the environment. Moreover, the relationship between cultural worldviews and pro-environmental behaviors are mediated by perceived environmental risks.

A Comparative Study of the Role of Interpersonal Communication, Traditional Media and Social Media in Pro-Environmental Behavior: A China-Based Study.

Previous studies have confirmed that information exposure affects pro-environmental behavior. With the rise of social media, new questions emerge in terms of whether different types of information exposure affect pro-environmental behavior differently. Based on a survey of 550 people that was carried out in China, this study aims to compare the different roles of interpersonal communication, traditional media, and social media in affecting the relationships between people's environmental risk perception, willingness to contribute to the environment, environmental knowledge, environmental concerns, and pro-environmental behavior. Our research discovered that: (1) traditional media has almost no effect on pro-environmental behavior; (2) interpersonal communication can affect pro-environmental behavior through significantly affecting environmental risk perception; (3) social media affects pro-environmental behavior mainly by strengthening the effects of interpersonal communication. The research reveals that while different types of information exposure affect pro-environmental behavior differently, interpersonal communication plays a central role. Concerning the mutual influence between social media and interpersonal communication, we propose that we could promote pro-environmental behavior by activating social media communication.

Assessment of the environmental risk perceptions and environmental attitudes of nursing students.

PURPOSE: This is a descriptive study examining nursing students' perceptions of the environmental risks and their environmental attitudes. METHODS: The study population comprised 2364 nursing students studying at universities in Istanbul in the fall semester of the 2012-2013 academic year. The sampling group was formed by 778 students which were selected by a stratified random sampling procedure. The data were collected using "The Student Personal Information Form", "The Environmental Risk Perception Scale" and "The Environmental Attitudes Scale". FINDINGS: The students' mean score on perceptions of environmental risk was 6.04 ± 0.81(min 2.56; max 7.00) and the mean score of their environmental attitudes was 4.02 ± 0.47(min 2.28; max 5.00). It was determined that factors such as gender, interest in environmental issues, endorsement of the college course on environment as necessary, and participation in an environmental activity and awareness of non-government environmental organizations affected the environmental risk perception and environmental attitudes. A moderate positive relationship (r = 0.366, p < .001) was found between the students' environmental risk perceptions and their environmental attitudes. CONCLUSION: Effective environmental education should be planned at all stages of the nursing education.

Practices of pharmaceutical waste generation and discarding in households across Portugal.

This work is the first nationwide study in Portugal on pharmaceutical waste generated at households, exploring people's attitudes and risk perception. The waste audit was carried out from September to November 2014, targeting pharmaceutical products kept by a sample of families (n = 244). This campaign was an assignment of VALORMED, the non-profit association that manages waste and packaging from expired and unused pharmaceutical products collected by the pharmacies. On average, each household kept at home 1097 g of pharmaceutical products, of which 20% were in use, 72% were not in use, and 8% were mostly expired products ready to discard. Face-to-face interviews with householders showed that 69% of the respondents claimed returning pharmaceutical waste to the local pharmacy. However, this figure is overrated, probably owing to a possible 'good answer' effect. The barriers identified to proper disposal were mainly established routines and lack of close disposal points. This study also provides an insight into the Portuguese awareness and daily practices concerning pharmaceutical waste, which is the cornerstone of any future strategy to reduce the release of active pharmaceutical ingredients into ecosystems.