Download pdf
Communicating the Smog: The Mediating Role of Anxiety in the Formation of Public Attitudes Towards Air Pollution Control in Beijing
- 1 Beijing International Studies University
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Public distrust and doubts about policy efficacy and governance capabilities are always of concern to policy-makers; opinion surveys are needed desperately to find out why, for a better communication pattern. Discussions around environmental problems such as the smog in Beijing are no exception. Based on rounds of surveys and interviews with Beijing residents, this study finds: (1) Those participants who ascribed the main cause to the surrounding industrial pollution tended to become very active in speculating on the reasons why car emission has been prioritized at the top of the policy agenda; (2) One trait dimension of the smog anxiety can play a mediating role in their buildup of such distrust and doubts. Its implication reiterates the necessity of making public policy motives and/or considerations available to the public to reduce misunderstandings and build mutual trust.
Keywords
smog anxiety, public opinion, mediation analysis, environmental communication
[1]. He, Q. (2009). A Psychological Study of Media Coverage on Food Safety in China. Beijing: Communication University of China Press.
[2]. Lippmann, W. (1922). Public Opinion. New York: Macmillan.
[3]. Zaller, J. (1992). The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4]. Noelle - Neumann, E. (1993). The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion—Our Social Skin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
[5]. Lerner, J. S., Li, Y., Valdesolo, P., & Kassam, K. S. (2015). Emotion and decision making. Annual Review of Psychology, 66(1), 799-823.
[6]. Lerner, J. S., & Keltner, D. (2000). Beyond valence: Toward a model of emotion - specific influences on judgement and choice. Cognition & Emotion, 14(4), 473-493.
[7]. Hamilton, D. L., Stroessner, S. J., & Mackie, D. M. (1993). The influence of affect on stereotyping: The case of illusory correlations. In D. M. Mackie & D. L. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, Cognition and Stereotyping (pp. 39-61). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
[8]. Maiese, M. (2014). How can emotions be both cognitive and bodily? Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 13, 513-531.
[9]. Marcus, G. E., Neuman, W. R., & MacKuen, M. (2000). Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
[10]. Li, C., & Tao, M. (2021). A mixed - method study of anxiety caused by the smog and its social - psychological impacts. Psychological Monthly, 16(4), 4-8.
[11]. Ogden, J., & Jubb, A. (2008). How consistent are beliefs about the causes and solutions to illness?: An experimental study. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 13(5), 505-515.
[12]. Li, C. (2021). Exploring cognitive stereotyping and bias in the attribution of smog formation in Beijing: An information processing and Communication Approach. Journal of Beijing City University, 6, 16 - 26.
[13]. Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
[14]. Moring, B. (2014). Research Methods in Psychology: Evaluating a World of Information. New York: WW Norton & Company.
[15]. Schwarz, N. (1990). Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states. In E. T. Higgins & R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundations of Social Behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 527–561). New York: The Guilford Press.
[16]. Cairney, P., & Kwiatkowski, R. (2017). How to communicate effectively with policymakers: combine insights from psychology and policy studies. Palgrave Communications, 3(1), 1 - 8.
[17]. Li, C. (2021). Towards a consensus of opinion on smog - related issues – From a communication perspective of environmental sciences. Public Communication of Science & Technology, 13(20), 6 - 13.
Cite this article
Li,C. (2025). Communicating the Smog: The Mediating Role of Anxiety in the Formation of Public Attitudes Towards Air Pollution Control in Beijing. Advances in Social Behavior Research,16(2),55-62.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title:
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).