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Political Behavior

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20.09.2022 | Original Paper

Alarmed but Unmoved: The Impact of the Provision of Correct Local Environmental Information

verfasst von: Zhengyan Li

Erschienen in: Political Behavior | Ausgabe 1/2024

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Abstract

Information disclosure has become a ubiquitous component of public policy. The virtues of information disclosure partly rest on citizens acting on disclosed information. Through a survey experiment, this article evaluates citizens’ responses to local environmental information from the Toxics Release Inventory, a major environmental information disclosure program in the U.S. The results suggest that individuals adjust their concern for self and family and sense of personal obligation to act based on new information relative to their prior knowledge. The information, however, has no impact on policy preferences and behavioral intentions. While citizens do not completely reject new information, the findings underscore the challenges of using information disclosure to motivate meaningful behavioral changes. They also contribute to the understanding of the relationships between information, political knowledge, attitudes, and preferences.

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The EPA’s RSEI mapping tools show national rankings of states and counties. https://www.epa.gov/rsei/rsei-results-map.

The results without NEP as a control are almost identical and are available upon request.

Considering the large number of outcomes examined in the analyses, I apply corrections for multiple hypothesis testing. Following the conservative Bonferroni adjustment, p-values for the coefficients on the interaction term, “treatment * misperception,” regarding concern for self/family and personal obligation to act are 0.079 and 0.128, respectively. Following an adjustment based on Familywise Error Rate, the respective p-values are 0.049 and 0.123.

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Titel: Alarmed but Unmoved: The Impact of the Provision of Correct Local Environmental Information
verfasst von: Zhengyan Li
Publikationsdatum: 20.09.2022
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Political Behavior / Ausgabe 1/2024
Print ISSN: 0190-9320
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6687
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-022-09819-w

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