Abstract
Although the physical effects of air pollution on humans are well documented, there may be even greater impacts on the emotional state and health. Surveys have traditionally been used to explore the impact of air pollution on people’s subjective well-being (SWB). However, the survey techniques usually take long periods to properly match the air pollution characteristics from monitoring stations to each respondent’s SWB at both disaggregated spatial and temporal levels. Here, we used air pollution data to simulate fixed-scene images and psychophysical process to examine the impact from only air pollution on SWB. Findings suggest that under the atmospheric conditions in Beijing, negative emotions occur when PM2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 µm) increases to approximately 150 AQI (air quality index). The British observers have a stronger negative response under severe air pollution compared with Chinese observers. People from different social groups appear to have different sensitivities to SWB when air quality index exceeds approximately 200 AQI.
Highlights
The physical effects of air pollution on humans are well documented, there may be even greater impacts on the emotional state and health
Studies show that subjective well-being (SWB) is significantly negatively related to many air pollutants[6,7,8,9], and individuals place a higher value on the loss of an environmental feature than on gaining an equivalent feature[10,11]
We simulated a set of air pollution images of Beijing by building a model to explain the relationship between colour information from colour-managed fixed-scene digital images and collected hourly air pollution data and weather/climate data in Beijing[5]
Summary
The physical effects of air pollution on humans are well documented, there may be even greater impacts on the emotional state and health. We used air pollution data to simulate fixed-scene images and psychophysical process to examine the impact from only air pollution on SWB. Researchers using surveys usually evaluate people’s overall SWB state via interviews or questionnaires covering rich information on the idiosyncrasies of subjects. In 2018, Yang et al adopted a psychophysical method to collect self-reported data and the analysis method which is widely employed in a survey approach to analyze and measure the moment-to-moment emotions[19]. They found that extreme emotional experiences related to hazardous air conditions may overpower people’s memory and mislead their judgement on improved air quality.
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