Does media usage affect pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors? Evidence from China

Abstract

This paper investigates the impacts of media usage on pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, utilizing microdata from the Chinese General Social Survey. Our results show that individuals with higher media exposure are more willing and carry out more actions to protect the environment. A further analysis shows that the dissemination of environmental knowledge is the underlying mechanism. Moreover, our results are robust to various robustness checks. Instrumental variable estimations provide individual-level evidence of the causal effect of media usage on pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. To motivate pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors in developing countries, communication should focus on how the dissemination of environmental information through the media can promote a better society.