Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2018, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 212-240.

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The Influencing Factors and Mechanism of Environmental Risk Perception: A Study on Public Nuclear Risk Perception

WANG Gang1, SONG Kaiye2   

  1. 1. Department of Public Administration, School of Law & Political Science, Ocean University of China;Marine Development Studies Institute, Ocean University of China;
    2. Department of Public Administration, School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University
  • Online:2018-07-20 Published:2018-07-20
  • Supported by:

    This paper was funded by the National Social Science Funding under the project of "Research on Environmental Risks and Holistic Governance of Large Coastal Projects"(16BZZ079).

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Abstract:

Paying attention to the factors that affect the perception of environmental risks is not only an urgent need for effective environmental risk management but also a leading issue vital to social governance. This study puts forward a hypothesis of two-factor theory about public environmental risk perception and validates the hypothesis through quantitative research. Grounded theory is applied toidentify four dimensions that influence public environmental risk perception:environmental affinity, system trust, information richness and interest orientation. The first two deal with emotional factors and the latter two situational factors. These factors are quantitatively examined by using the structural equation model to determine whetherthey have a significant impact on the public environmental risk perception. The study yieldssome interesting findings. First, the four emotional and situational factors all affect environmental risk perception.Second, the impact of environmental affinity on public environmental risk perception is weak and its effect is often related to the environmental concerns of individuals.Third, system trust has a strong negative impact on environmental risk perception.Fourth, the correlation between information richness and environmental risk perception is not significant, however, once revised as "highly relevant," the impact of information richness on environmental risk perception becomes a nonlinear correlation, exercising strong influence on public environmental risk perception.Fifth, the recognition of self-interest is the decisive factor affecting public environmental risk perception.

Key words: risk perception, Mechanism of action, mixed method, environmental risk, influencing factors