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The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms

This study examines how risk perception and authoritarian personality affect public engagement in mitigating air pollution. Data were collected (n = 2010) from 13 Chinese cities with varying air pollution gradients using questionnaires. The results demonstrated that air pollution was significantly c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cao, Jiawen, Chen, Jin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431633/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501891
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179301
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author Cao, Jiawen
Chen, Jin
author_facet Cao, Jiawen
Chen, Jin
author_sort Cao, Jiawen
collection PubMed
description This study examines how risk perception and authoritarian personality affect public engagement in mitigating air pollution. Data were collected (n = 2010) from 13 Chinese cities with varying air pollution gradients using questionnaires. The results demonstrated that air pollution was significantly correlated with people’s risk perception and concern about air pollution, which significantly affected their pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). However, high-risk perceptions undermine the public’s self-efficacy and reduce people’s PEB in the private sphere. People with high scores of the authoritarian personality type were reluctant to engage in PEB in the private sphere; interestingly, it can also be transformed into a stronger PEB in the public sphere via social norms. Thus, this study suggests that educational activities can break the negative link between authoritarianism and environmentalism, leading to behavioural change. Hence, it is essential for education programs to harvest positive outcomes via adaptive approaches for varying authoritarian personalities.
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spelling pubmed-84316332021-09-11 The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms Cao, Jiawen Chen, Jin Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This study examines how risk perception and authoritarian personality affect public engagement in mitigating air pollution. Data were collected (n = 2010) from 13 Chinese cities with varying air pollution gradients using questionnaires. The results demonstrated that air pollution was significantly correlated with people’s risk perception and concern about air pollution, which significantly affected their pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). However, high-risk perceptions undermine the public’s self-efficacy and reduce people’s PEB in the private sphere. People with high scores of the authoritarian personality type were reluctant to engage in PEB in the private sphere; interestingly, it can also be transformed into a stronger PEB in the public sphere via social norms. Thus, this study suggests that educational activities can break the negative link between authoritarianism and environmentalism, leading to behavioural change. Hence, it is essential for education programs to harvest positive outcomes via adaptive approaches for varying authoritarian personalities. MDPI 2021-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8431633/ /pubmed/34501891 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179301 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Cao, Jiawen
Chen, Jin
The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms
title The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms
title_full The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms
title_fullStr The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms
title_short The Impact of an Authoritarian Personality on Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Air Pollution Mitigation through Interactions with Social Norms
title_sort impact of an authoritarian personality on pro-environmental behaviour for air pollution mitigation through interactions with social norms
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431633/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501891
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179301
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