The influence of trust on the public's environmental risk perception: evidence from China

As the leading country in terms of environmental pollution production, China is experiencing increasing environmental risks. This study explored the types and severity perception of the public's environmental risk perception in China and examined the influence of different types of trust on environmental risk perception. The data used in the study were obtained from the Chinese General Social Survey 2013, which provides the best representative nationwide data in China. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to distinguish the types of environmental risk perception. Then, the influence of different trust on two types of environmental risk perception was examined by regression analysis respectively. The current study determined that living and natural environmental risk perceptions are two major types of environmental risk perceptions. Regression results revealed that trust in all the central and local government, in most people in society and in the media help to attenuate living environmental risk perceptions. For natural environmental risk perception, trust in the local government and in the media help reduce the public's risk perception. Compared with living environmental risk perception, the public held a relatively low perception of natural environmental risk. Promoting government trust (especially local government trust) and media trust could be a vital risk communication tool for effective environmental risk management.