Exploring the influencing factors of Chinese rural households’ clean heating choice considering the attitude–behavior gap based on two-level classification methods

Abstract

Although the Chinese government accelerated the clean heating transition in rural areas, the phenomenon of households returning to bulk coal heating remains. In previous studies applying customer satisfaction index models to predict households’ clean heating choice, the attitude–behavior gap is always ignored. To clarify the influencing factors of households’ clean heating choice considering the attitude–behavior gap, a two-level classification method was proposed in this study. On the first level, households were divided into consistent and inconsistent groups according to their corresponding satisfaction with and willingness to use clean heating. On the second level, targeted clean heating policies were proposed based on further household classification, considering the diverse effects of influencing factors. The results show that: (1) In the consistent group, rural households’ satisfaction is most vulnerable to internal psychological factors, including perceived warmth, perceived air quality, and perceived family support; in the inconsistent group, rural households’ satisfaction is most vulnerable to the heating information from householders’ working places and the subsidies’ rationality. (2) The satisfaction of households that actively approve clean heating is higher than that of households that passively accept clean heating. (3) Households without government support that do not passively accept clean heating have the highest risk of resuming bulk coal heating, followed by those who don’t actively approve and are unable to afford clean heating, but it is easier for the former to adopt clean heating through government guidance.