Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558

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Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

How does new environmental law affect public environmental

protection activities in China? Evidence from structural equation model
analysis on legal cognition
Jielin Chen a,1, Junyue Huang b,1, Xiaocheng Huang a,1, Shiwei Sun a,1, Yu Hao a,c,d,e,f,⁎, Haitao Wu a,c,g,1
a
School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
b
School of Law, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
c
Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
d
Beijing Key Lab of Energy Economics and Environmental Management, Beijing 100081, China
e
Sustainable Development Research Institute for Economy and Society of Beijing, Beijing 100081, China
f
Collaborative Innovation Center of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, Beijing 100081, China
g
College of Economics and Management, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830047, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Impact of environmental law on public

environmental behavior is quantita-
tively investigated.
• No difference between the impact fac-
tors of environmental behavior of citi-
zen and activist
• Perceived behavioral control and sub-
jective norms positively influence envi-
ronmental intention.
• Legal cognition moderates the relation-
ship between environmental intentions
and behaviors.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: To investigate the validity of Chinese law enforcement from the public's perspective, this research applies the
Received 5 September 2019 theory of planned behavior, and introduces law as a moderator variable to explore the determinants of public's
Received in revised form 21 December 2019 environmental behaviors. Results from an empirical study of China indicate that perceived behavioral control,
Accepted 4 January 2020
subjective norms, inward attitude, and outward attitude all have positive impacts on environmental intentions
Available online 13 January 2020
and indirectly affect the citizens' environmental behavior and activists' environmental behavior. Meanwhile,
Editor: Damia Barcelo legal cognition positively moderates the relationship between environmental intentions and behaviors. As the
level of the public's legal awareness increases, the direct effect of these two types of environmental intentions
Keywords: on environmental behaviors respectively continues to increase. Based on the findings, some constructive impli-
Environmental law cations are provided to the governments and legislators to strengthen public participation in environmental
Public environmental protection activities protection.
Structural equation model (SEM) © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Legal cognition
China

⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Sun), [email protected] (Y. Hao).
1
These authors contributed equally and should be considered co-first authors.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136558
0048-9697/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558

1. Introduction environmental protection laws affect the public's environmental behav-

ior. Second, 544 questionnaire survey samples of normal citizens from
Global environmental problems, including environmental degrada- various provinces and cities in China are used to conduct empirical re-
tion, global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain, are to a great extent search. The use of first-hand data ensures that the research findings
related with the use of natural resources in an unsustainable manner are more reliable and reasonable. Third, our results have practical signif-
(Singh and Singh, 2017). Nowadays, the international community has icance and social value because of the evaluation of the practical effect of
already realized the urgency of protecting environment. Most devel- environmental law in public participation and multi-governance of en-
oped countries started to deal with these problems earlier and have vironmental governance. Moreover, we have also classified public envi-
made some accomplishments, including the successful implementation ronmental attitude as an inward attitude (IA) and outward attitude
of a number of demonstration projects of Carbon Capture and Storage (OA) to refine the extended model based on the theory of planned
(Tcvetkov and Cherepovitsyn, 2016). However, it is still a common behavior.
problem for many developing countries to coordinate economic devel- Furthermore, the paper can still provide enlightening inspirations
opment and environmental protection at the same time (Azam, 2016). globally, especially for some developing countries that face similar seri-
Take China as an example, since the reform and opening up, China's ous environmental problems and the countries with authoritarian re-
economy has made substantial achievements. However, China's rapid gimes. For those developing countries in the period of rapid economic
economic growth has caused serious environmental pollution (N. development, how to coordinate economic development and ecological
Zhang et al., 2017; Sun et al., 2019; Managi and Kaneko, 2006). Accord- protection is a critical issue. This article provides specific perspectives
ing to the 2018 bulletin of China's ecological environment situation, 217 and aspects of promoting public's protection participation to protect
of 338 prefecture-level cities (64.2%) in China have achieved the mini- the environment. For instance, our findings can verify the effectiveness
mum standard of environmental air quality. Additionally, environmen- of legal cognition when regulating individual environmental behaviors,
tal pollution such as water pollution and solid waste has caused serious and thus encourage decision-makers to pay more attention to legal leg-
harm to human beings (Wang and Yang, 2016; Xie et al., 2016; Hystad islation. In addition, for those countries with authoritarian regimes, this
et al., 2019). Therefore, China's environmental governance systems re- study also proves that the mandatory weaker law can also play an im-
quire urgent changes. Notably, China's environmental governance portant role for the individual's behaviors, which provides new thinking
mainly depends on two means: law and planning. However, with the to the public governance.
frequent conflicts between economic development and preserving en- The remainder of this study is organized into six sections. The second
vironmental quality, the effect on the quality and enforcement of the section provides brief literature review. The third section offers the re-
law have gradually become unsuitable to fulfill social development search framework and model at first, and then the methodology for
needs (Wang, 2009). Therefore, the new environmental law must be the questionnaire design and data sources is explained. The fourth sec-
designated to ensure the implementation of environmental responsibil- tion explains the results of model testing, structural equation model
ity. As a type of command-and-control regulation (B. Zhang et al., 2018), analysis, and the moderating effect of legal cognition. Then, correspond-
can law be used as an auxiliary means to regulate citizens' environmen- ing discussions of the research results are presented. In the final section,
tal behaviors? Can law promote public participation in environmental conclusions, recommendations, and limitations of this study are derived
governance? Therefore, in this context, a study of whether new environ- and provided from the study findings.
mental regulations can effectively affect the public's environmental pro-
tection activities and the formulation and sustainable development of 2. Literature review
government environmental protection policies is of great theoretical
and practical significance. As briefly mentioned in the Introduction Section, there are three
Most of previous related studies on environmental law and environ- types of literature related with the topic of environmental law and pub-
mental pollution mainly involve the evaluation of and problems with lic environmental protection activities. Specifically, these studies mainly
law enforcement (e.g., X. Li et al., 2019; Yu and Wang, 2013; involve the evaluation of and problems with law enforcement, the im-
Fredriksson et al., 2010; Zhan et al., 2013; Ran, 2013; Kellenberg, pact of environmental policies on the public's lifestyle, and the impact
2009; Lu et al., 2012), the impact of environmental policies on the public of environmental policies on pollution control.
lifestyle (Christainsen and Haveman, 1981; Barbera and McConnell, Regarding the evaluation of environmental law enforcement, rele-
1990; Walley and Whitehead, 1994; Henderson, 1997; Greenstone, vant researches investigated the importance of regulation enforcement
2002; Porter and Van der Linde, 1995; Nielsen et al., 1995; Goodstein, in the process of environmental governance in the developing countries
1995), and the impact of environmental policies on pollution situation (e.g., X. Li et al., 2019; Yu and Wang, 2013). The results suggested that
(Porter and Van der Linde, 1995; B. Zhang et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2018; the effect of the law might be subject to political bias (Fredriksson
Wu et al., 2019; Zhu et al., 2019). However, most of the existent litera- et al., 2010), limited resources (Zhan et al., 2013), personal economic in-
ture has focused on jurisprudential research or from the perspective of terests (Ran, 2013) and other factors and mentioned the potential harm
macro-development and micro-economy, but the impact of law on pub- of pollution haven effects to developing countries (Kellenberg, 2009; Lu
lic environmental behaviors has long been ignored. Notably, the main et al., 2012). Specifically, taking China's legal and planned environmen-
agents of environmental affairs include not only companies and firms tal policies as the research object, X. Li et al. (2019) investigated the im-
but also individual citizens. In this regard, protecting the environment pact of the central government's rules, regulations and reward and
is the responsibility and obligation of both enterprises and citizens punishment mechanisms on the implementation of local government
(Nielsen, 2017; Yang and Weber, 2019). To fill the research gap, using policies. The results indicate that local governments may selectively im-
the data from a random sampling survey, this study applies the theory plement environmental policies. Such selective implementation efforts
of planned behavior and employs the structural equation model to ex- are mainly determined by autocratic environmentalism and the target
plore the determinants of public's environmental behaviors. Specifi- responsibility system imposed by the central government. Yu and
cally, environmental law is introduced as a moderator variable to Wang (2013) established a Stackelberg model to study how environ-
investigate how new environmental law affect public environmental mental law is implemented by the central government and local gov-
protection activities. ernments in China, and they found that there is a conflict of interest
To sum up, the contribution of this paper is threefold. First, this study between the central government and the local government.
verifies and replies to the validity of Chinese law enforcement, and for Frederickson (2002) argued that the function of bureaucracy in the
the first time, focuses on the public's perspective, rather than the Eastern countries was stronger than that in the Western countries,
enterprise's perspective, to explore whether new Chinese and the law enforcement in the East was strongly influenced by
 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558 3

bureaucracy, of which the root was Confucianism. Ran (2013) found of environmental quality, greatly reducing the emissions of pollutants,
that the incentive mechanism structure of China's central government and thus highlighting the importance and necessity of government en-
for the implementation of local environmental policies is unreasonable, vironmental regulation. Cairns (2014) suggested that environmental
and the central government fails to encourage local government offi- regulations can promote carbon emission reduction without consider-
cials to properly implement environmental policies politically, finan- ing the natural and technological characteristics of oil production. In
cially and morally. In addition, a relevant research conducted by contrast, following the hypothesis of “green paradox”, some scholars ar-
Kellenberg (2009) also found evidence that relatively‘footloose’ indus- gued that environmental regulation may not necessarily lead to the re-
tries are more vulnerable to the impact of environmental policies than duction of environmental pollution. For instance, Sinn (2008) found
traditionally, and the implementation of environmental policies is that environmental regulation may even increase carbon emissions,
often more important than the strictness of policies. which may be caused by unreasonable carbon tax setting, reduced de-
As for the impact of environmental policies on the public, the previ- mand of administrative measures for fossil energy and lagged process
ous literature mainly focused on the impact of environmental policies of policy promulgation and implementation. According to the research
on employment, income and health of residents. The relevant studies of Smulders et al. (2012), the early announcement of carbon tax policies
found that the formulation of environmental regulation policy would and regulations may lead to the instantaneously rapid increase of car-
lead to the rise of enterprise cost, reduce the production efficiency and bon emissions, therefore the carbon emissions between the announce-
income of enterprises, thus resulting in employment losses that are ment and the actual implementation period may increase remarkably.
caused by environmental regulation (e.g., Christainsen and Haveman, Ritter and Schopf (2014) found that green policy measures may not
1981; Barbera and McConnell, 1990; Walley and Whitehead, 1994; only accelerate the exploitation of fossil fuels, but also lead to large
Henderson, 1997; Stanwick and Stanwick, 1998; Greenstone, 2002; emissions of greenhouse gases. In addition, some scholars believe that
Busse, 2004; Chintrakarn, 2008). However, some scholars argued that “green paradox” and “backward forcing emission reduction” exist at
the environmental regulation could improve the demand of labor the same time. For instance, Min (2018) found that the nexus between
force by affecting the innovation of enterprises, social benefits and em- environmental regulation and carbon emissions is inverted U-shaped.
ployment environment (e.g., Porter, 1991; Porter and Van der Linde, Moreover, “green paradox” effect dominates before the inflection
1995; Nielsen et al., 1995; Goodstein, 1995; Bezdek et al., 2008; point is reached, while “forced emission reduction” effect dominates
Mishra and Smyth, 2012; Belova et al., 2013; Gray et al., 2014). In addi- after the inflection point is reached.
tion, some studies have found that environmental policies can affect In summary, the extant literature has to some extent demonstrated
residents' health and income. On one hand, environmental regulations advantages and disadvantages of laws and regulations on environmen-
have changed the structure of consumption demand to be more envi- tal protection. Some studies have also explored the potential problems
ronmentally friendly, and therefore help to promote healthy consump- and clarified the effects of regulations on environmental improvement.
tion behavior (Boyce, 2007). On the other hand, the optimization of However, the law's impact on individual environmental behaviors has
human capital caused by the promotion of environmental regulations long been ignored. Therefore, in this study the influence of new environ-
has a significant effect on the improvement of citizens' health conditions mental law on the public environmental protection activities is carefully
(Sheng, 2017). Using the provincial panel data of China from 2002 to examined. This study has not only contribution to literature but also
2013, Sheng (2017) found evidence that low-income groups have may bring new thinking to the governance of environmental issues
more damage to the health due to less investment in healthy human and support the subsequent legal implementation.
capital, thus increasing income inequality. The implementation of envi-
ronmental regulation policy can therefore reduce income inequality by 3. Research framework and model building
controlling environmental pollution. Boyce (2007) argued that income
inequality changes the public's preference for environmental quality, The theory of planned behavior (TPB) argues the human behavior is
thus affecting the government's public environmental policy and envi- the result of planning. This theory has been widely applied in the studies
ronmental quality. Chay et al. (2003) evaluated the health effects of on the relations among beliefs, attitudes, behavioral intentions and be-
the implementation of the American Clean Air Act (CAA), and found haviors in various fields such as advertising, public relations, advertising
that although the mortality rate of adults did not change much, the campaigns, healthcare, sport management and sustainability (Armitage
level of TSP decreased significantly. In this regard, the effectiveness of and Conner, 2010). According to the statistics of Al-Suqri (2015), so far
the air clean act was significant. Through scenario simulations, some there has been N1200 research bibliographies on TPB in the academic
scholars also found that water pollution regulation policies have differ- database. It helps explain individuals' behavior in certain contexts, argu-
ent health and economic effects in the long run (Bell et al., 2006; ing humans' behavior is caused by the behavioral intentions, and behav-
Anenberg et al., 2009). ioral intentions are in turn a function of an individual's attitude and
Regarding the impact of environmental policies on environmental subjective norm (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) as well as perceived behav-
pollution, previous studies basically focused on the effectiveness of en- ioral control (Ajzen, 1991). According to TPB, the objective variable “en-
vironmental regulation policies (i.e., how and to what extent do these vironmental behavior” is a behavior that theoretically may be affected
policies and regulations reduce environmental pollution). Some studies by one's attitude, norm and resources. The TPB has been widely used
tested the hypothesis of “forced emission reduction”, and found that en- in the study on human behavior and the study of environmental behav-
vironmental regulation can reduce environmental pollution to a certain ior (De Groot and Steg, 2007; X. Zhang et al., 2017; Y. Zhang et al., 2018).
extent. Specifically, strictly and properly designed environmental regu- In this study the TPB is utilized as the main theoretical basis for the anal-
lations can stimulate enterprises' innovation activities, and the resulting ysis. Specifically, Fig. 1 shows the theoretical framework of this paper.
“compensation effect” of innovation can at least partially offset the cost
of environmental regulations, which is conducive to the improvement 3.1. Environmental behavior
of productivity and the reduction of environmental pollution (Porter
and Van der Linde, 1995). Some recent studies found that environmen- Pro-environmental behavior is a broad concept, and people who are
tal regulations improve environment by reducing greenhouse gas emis- environmentally conscious are usually more willing to be involved in
sions (e.g., Boskovic, 2015; Schreifels et al., 2012; Hao et al., 2019) and multiple activities of environmental protection (Stern, 2000). After
curbing pollution (B. Zhang et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2018; Wu et al., measuring self-reported environmental behaviors, Stern et al. (1999)
2019; Zhu et al., 2019). Using a dataset collected in Dublin, Clancy proposed that there are three types of behaviors that may encompass
et al. (2002) verified that the formulation and implementation of envi- different kinds of pro-environmental activities: green purchase, good
ronmental regulation policies are indeed conducive to the improvement citizenship behavior (e.g., recycling), and environmental activist
4 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558

behavior. Considering the complexity of environmental law, the classifi- 2000; Leonidou et al., 2010). As for TPB, “outward attitude” is an ex-
cation of environmental protection behavior is helpful to analyze the in- tended variable, and existent studies argue that an appropriate ex-
fluence of environmental law on environmental protection behavior tended theory of planned behavior model may have more predictive
more specifically. However, the main purpose of this study is to investi- power (Gorsuch and Ortenberg, 1983; Conner and Armitage, 1998;
gate the moderate effect of China's new environmental law, which does Bosnjak et al., 2005). As lots of studies agree that in the field of environ-
not involve consumers' purchase content or provision and thus has no di- mental protection, apart from individuals, the active participation of
rect effect on purchasing behavior. Moreover, most of the studies on envi- governments, society, non-profit organizations, and other stakeholders
ronmental behaviors have examined green purchase behavior (Zhang should be fully involved (e.g., Liere and Dunlap, 1980; Leonidou et al.,
et al., 2019; Hanninen and Karjaluoto, 2017; Zhang et al., 2013; 2010; Trivedi et al., 2018). As this study is to examine the effect of law
Leonidou et al., 2010). Therefore, this study only focusses on good citizen- on the environmental behavior, we also care about people's opinion
ship behavior (CB) and activists' behavior (AB). The reasons are as fol- on the necessity of other groups to make some changes for the environ-
lows: (1) good citizenship behavior, namely, reduction of energy ment. In this regard, “outward attitude” is a proper extended variable
consumption and daily resource waste or recycling activities; and (2) ac- that we take into account in the analysis. Theoretical and empirical anal-
tivists' environmental behavior, including joining environmental protec- yses have both suggested that individual attitudes play a crucial leading
tion organizations and actively reporting environmental problems. role in environmental protection (Festinger, 1957; Leonidou et al.,
2010). Thus, we propose the following hypotheses:
3.2. Environmental intention
H3. IA has a positive impact on citizens' environmental intention.
According to the two types of environmental behaviors, there are corre- H4. IA has a positive impact on activists' environmental intention.
sponding two categories of environmental intentions: Citizens' environ-
mental intention (CI) and Activists' environmental intention (AI). A series H5. OA has a positive impact on citizens' environmental intention.
of previous studies indicate that, a person could make a conscious plan
H6. OA has a positive impact on activists' environmental intention.
and commitment to take action after evaluating the internal aspects
(e.g., personal knowledge, emotion) and the external aspects (e.g., costs,
benefits) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). As for the influence of behavior inten- 3.4. Subjective norm
tion, researchers have found that people will conduct intention only when
their self-cognition changes. Wang et al. (2018) directly verified the impact Subjective norms directly affect behavioral intentions (Vining and
of tourists' environmental intentions on environmental behaviors through Ebreo, 1992). Subjective norms refer to individuals who are influenced
structural equation model and a hypothesis test, and the results were signif- by others and then change their behavior (Raymore, 2002). Individuals
icant. Lee et al. (2014) and Liu et al. (2010) have also demonstrated that en- or groups always promote interpersonal participation (Fishbein and
vironmental behavior intention directly affects environmental behavior. Ajzen, 1975), and people change their behavior by observing others
Therefore, we propose the following two hypotheses. (e.g., parents, friends, and partners) in society (Bandura and Wood,
1989). Environment-related research has also shown that people are
H1. Citizens' environmental intention directly affects citizens' environ-
more likely to feel socially responsible (Schwartz, 1977); thus, people
mental behavior.
will take more actions that are useful to society due to the influence of so-
H2. Activists' environmental intention directly affects activists' envi- cial common morality and binding specification (Schwartz, 1977; Pretty,
ronmental behavior. 2003). Cheung and Vogel (2013) argued that a subjective norm has a di-
rect positive impact on environmental intentions and serves as a moder-
ating variable between environmental attitudes and environmental
3.3. Environmental attitude intentions. When people have a positive environmental attitude, they en-
hance environmental intentions. Given the importance of subjective
Some previous studies demonstrated that attitude directly affects norms to environmental intention, we propose the following hypotheses:
behavioral intention (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; McCarty and Shrum,
2001). To achieve individual assessment of environmental actions, a H7. A subjective norm has a positive effect on citizens' environmental
framework of inward environmental attitude (IA) and outward envi- intention.
ronmental attitude (OA) was proposed (Leonidou et al., 2010). An in-
H8. A subjective norm has a positive effect on activists' environmental
ward attitude refers to “attitudes referring to the abuse of the
intention.
environment by individual consumers”; that is, the attitude toward in-
dividuals or themselves taking environmental measures. In contrast,
outward attitude is related to other people and groups other than the 3.5. Perceived behavioral control
individuals or themselves. It refers to the views on the necessity of so-
cial, political, and legal changes to protect the environment (Stern, Perceived behavioral control (PBC) reflects an individual's experi-
enced and expected obstacles. Planned behavior theory indicates that
the more resources and opportunities an individual thinks he or she
has, the fewer obstacles he or she expects, and the stronger perceptual
behavioral control she or he has (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Wan et al.,
2017). PBC is widely used to study residents' environmental protection
intentions (Valle et al., 2005; Wan et al., 2017; Li et al., 2017; Li and Wu,
2019). We divided perceived behavior control into the residents' citizen
perceived behavior control (PCC) and the activist-perceived behavior
control (PCA) according to two types of established environmental be-
haviors. PCC emphasizes the opportunities and obstacles in residents'
good-citizen environmental protection process. Influencing factors in-
clude the status of basic equipment for residents' garbage and recycling,
Fig. 1. Model of the hypothesized relationships between attitudes, subjective norm, the convenience of saving electricity and water, and the establishment
perceived behavior control, law, environmental intention and environmental behavior. of recycling points for, for example, old clothes. (Lee et al., 2014). In
 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558 5

terms of PCA, it is manifested in carrying out more aggressive environ- reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity are tested and
mental activities, such as reporting, protesting, donating, joining envi- verified. Then, using AMOS software, the structural equation model
ronmental protection organizations. (Lee et al., 2014). The factors (SEM) is employed to test and verify the fitness of the hypothetical
affecting perceived behavior include the reporting of protests, the num- model, and the correlations between all variables through path analysis
ber of organized donations, and the number of environmental protec- are obtained. Afterwards, SPSS PROCESS is utilized to analyze the mod-
tion organizations. Cheung et al. (1999) investigated the impact of erate effects of the legal cognition by testing the significance of the in-
PBC on environmental intentions and showed that PBC has an impor- teraction terms.
tant impact on residents' green recycling intention. Therefore, we pro-
pose the following hypotheses: 4.2. Questionnaire development

H9. PCC has a positive effect on citizens' environmental intention. As mentioned previously, this paper tends to explore whether and
H10. PCA has a positive effect on activists' environmental intention. how the new environmental law affects public environmental behav-
iors. To solve this problem, at first the possible determinants of environ-
mental behaviors should be figured out, and then the legal cognition
3.6. Environmental law should be linked to the verified model to test the moderating effect of
laws on residents' environmental behaviors.
Law is of great significance to conduct. Law has a punitive and deter- Specifically, to verify the model and corresponding hypotheses, we
rent effect on people's behaviors, generating a legal incentive firstly consider whether the environmental intention directly affects en-
(Friedman, 1994). Vroom (1964) indicated in his expectancy theory vironmental behaviors (H1−H2) and whether independent variables
that law proposes expected rewards or results that can stimulate behav- have positive effect on environmental intention (H3−H10). After two
iors. Additionally, the law provides the corresponding procedure and pre-surveys, the questions focused on the independent variables, envi-
method for people's behavior and makes the behavior orientation ronmental intention and environmental behaviors have been respec-
clear and definite. In the environment field, the law also has an impor- tively designed. To verify whether the new environmental law has the
tant impact on behavior. According to a study by Sutherland (2010), en- moderation effect between environmental intention and behavior
vironmental laws and regulations positively affect farmers' investment (H11 and H12), both public law knowledge and public behaviors should
in agricultural development. Lu et al. (2012) demonstrated that envi- be considered, for the effect of law can be seen through the behaviors of
ronmental protection laws in developed countries contribute to the residents with different degrees of knowledge of the law. Therefore, 10
transfer of environmental pollution. Zhao et al. (2015) demonstrated questions are designed to judge residents' knowledge of law.
that environmental protection laws and regulations promote the After initial designing and revisions following a pilot survey, the for-
green development of companies. The theoretical model of planned be- mal questionnaire with 41 questions was fixed. 27 latent variable scales,
havior is widely used in the field of the environment, but not many re- ten legally relevant judgment questions, and four control variable
searchers have combined other external factors. Notably, in discussions topics. A 7-point Likert scale was used to measure the degrees of agree-
of the impact of internal factors on environmental behavior, external ment to the items in the questionnaire from “strongly disagree” to
factors (i.e., laws and policies) should be considered to get closer to re- “strongly agree;” among them, the questions about laws and regulations
ality. Because individuals are not completely independent, except for in- centered on the Environmental Protection Law of People's Republic of
ternal factors, they are also subtly influenced by policies, culture, laws, China, the core law of the Chinese environmental protection system,
and other external factors (Wang et al., 2018). and considered other distinctive regulations, including “the General
The external variable chosen in this study is the legal cognition. Few Principles” of Environmental Protection Law of People's Republic of
studies have explored the influence of law on environmental protection China, Chapter 5 “Public Participation,” and Chapter 6 “Legal Responsi-
behavior with environmental law as the regulating variable. One of sim- bilities and other Laws Relevant to residents.” The questionnaire cov-
ilar studies has been conducted is about tourists' environmental protec- ered important systems in China's environmental law, such as motor
tion behavior (Wang et al., 2018). Interpreted as moderating variable vehicle restriction, public interest litigation, no-fault liability, pollutant
based on the environment, environmental interpretation includes tour- discharge permit, secret reports, and daily punishments. It considered
ism environmental policy, environmental warning labels and environ- the relevant laws that clarify public rights and obligations and laws
mental laws, and the overall framework, regarding the theory of that improve citizens' environmental awareness and prevent citizens
planned behavior to explore the factors' influence on tourist environ- from polluting the environment. Among the questions related to the
mental behavior of concrete and the regulation of legal interpretation. quantification of environmental behaviors, the three types of activists'
The results show that an environmental explanation of environmental environmental behaviors included “participating in environmental
behavior does have a positive role in regulating. We posit that laws non-profit organizations,” “supporting environmental organizations
also have a positive regulating effect on residents' citizens' environmen- (e.g., donations, public appeals, participation in activities),” and “com-
tal behavior and radical environmental behavior. Therefore, the follow- plaints, reports, protests, and litigation.” The four types of citizen behav-
ing hypothesis is proposed: ior were “turn off the lights,” “save water,” “green traffic,” and “garbage
recycling.” The control variables were drawn on the design of environ-
H11. Environmental law positively moderates the relationship be- mental behavior research and included four demographic characteris-
tween citizens' environmental intention and behavior. tics (gender, age, occupation, and monthly disposable income). The
H12. Environmental law positively moderates the relationship be- relevant items and sources are given in Table 1. The whole question-
tween activist's environmental intention and behavior. naire is in Table 2.
Considering the content coverage, “turn off the lights”, “save water”,
“green traffic” and “garbage recycling” are chosen as citizen environ-
4. Methodology mental behaviors. On one hand, water and electricity, as basic necessi-
ties and public services in a populous country, must be ensured to
4.1. Outline satisfy its residents' daily use. As a result, water and electricity prices
set by the Chinese government are considerably low. Even after the in-
In this study, a questionnaire survey is used to evaluate people's at- troduction of ladder prices for water and electricity, the average
titude, intention and behavior toward the environment. Using the data monthly price per person in Beijing city is only lower than 20 Chinese
collected from the questionnaires, the internal consistency, construct yuan (c.a. 3 U.S. dollars). Take water as an example. Despite the severe
6 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558

Table 1 Table 2
Factors affecting environmental behaviors. Questionnaire.

Determinants in previous Determinants in the literature Sources Section A: Personal profile

studies
1. Gender: (M) Male (F) Female
Inward attitude I am very concerned about the Kilbourne and 2. Age: (1) Younger than 18/ (2) 18–30/ (3) 31–50/ (4) Older than age 51
environment Pickett, 2008 3. What is your net monthly income? (1) Less than 1000/ (2)1000–3000/ (3)
Everybody is obligated to treasure Lam, 1999 3001–6000/ (4) 6001–9000/ (6) More than 9000
the environment 4. What is your career? (1) Student (2) Enterprise employee (3) Civil servant (4)
We should care about the Fujii, 2006 Other
environment
Outward attitude Major political change is Trivedi et al., Section B: Latent variable scales
necessary 2018
Inward attitude
Major social changes are
I am very concerned about the environment.
necessary
Everybody is obligated to treasure the environment.
Major law revision is necessary
I feel guilty when I find that my surrounding environment has severely
Social norm Family members Prete et al., 2017
deteriorated.
Friends
Social reputation Outward attitude
Perceived behavioral Public transportation satisfied Cheung et al., Major political change is necessary.
control (citizen) Many recycle bins. 1999 Major social changes are necessary.
Perceived behavioral Many environmental activities Han et al., 2010 Major revisions to the law are necessary.
control (activist) Many ways to report
environmental problems Subjective norm
My family members have asked me to protect the environment.
My friends have asked me to protect the environment.
Damaging the environment would damage my reputation.
water shortage in China especially in the northern region, the market-
Perceived behavioral control (citizen)
based pricing method is mainly used for irrigation water and industrial
Public transportation can fulfill my daily needs.
water (Johansson, 2000). However, water for citizen household use has Recycling bins are common around me.
not been fully marketized (Wang et al., 2010). Some existent researches
Perceived behavioral control (activist)
also indicate that several economic factors such as water price and
I know many ways to report environmentally unfriendly behavior.
household income have no direct impact on residential water use in There are many environmental activities around me.
China (e.g., Zhang and Brown, 2005). On another hand, some recent
Citizens' environmental intention
studies have found that most of China's CO2 emissions are highly asso-
I would like to save energy as much as possible.
ciated with energy consumption in big cities (e.g., Fan et al., 2015; Mi I would like to save resources as much as possible.
et al., 2016), and especially in the transportation area (e.g., Qiu and I would like to choose green travel as much as possible.
He, 2017, Yang and He, 2016, Sheng and Ling-Yun, 2016). Due to rapid I would like to sort garbage and recycle as much as possible.
economy development and flourishing online car hailing services, Chi- Activists' environmental intention
nese citizens could travel by private cars and cabs at relatively low If my life or my children's life is affected by environmental pollution, I will actively
prices, and the rapid growth of passenger vehicles greatly contribute take action (e.g., report, parade, protest, and lawsuit)
to greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumptions (Fan et al., 2017). If I find a nearby project would greatly harm the environment, I will take action
against its construction.
If I have the ability, I will support environmental organizations (e.g., donations,
4.3. Data collection and sample profile public appeals, and participation in activities).

Citizens' environmental behavior

During five months between October 2018 and January 2019, we
I always turn off the lights when I leave.
randomly distributed 610 questionnaires in 29 provinces, autonomous I always turn off the tap when I leave.
regions and municipal cities in the mainland of China (excluding Hong Generally, I use public transportation, bicycles, and walking to travel.
Kong, Macao and Taiwan). The sample size of each province was I often put water bottles in the recycling bin.
based on its population size. The surveys were distributed by trained in- Activists' environmental behavior
vestigators at schools, in central business districts, at the local libraries, I am or was a member of an environmental organization.
at shopping malls, and in residential areas within the city limits. The re- I have supported environmental organizations (e.g., donations, public appeals, and
participation in activities)
spondents in different regions were chosen by considering their gender,
I have reported, protested, or prosecuted environmental pollution.
age, income and career. To obtain high-quality feedback and increase
the response rate, a paper-and-pen interview was adopted. Of the 610 Section C: Legal-related judgment questions
questionnaires, 544 were collected (89.2%). Table 2 below provides de-
Protecting the environment is a basic state policy.
scriptive statistics analysis on the collected data. There is a motor vehicle tail number restriction policy in my area.
Among the 544 respondents, the age group in this study is between Noise is also legally prescribed pollution.
10 and 74. A similar distribution is shown in the national statistics, dem- If a construction project starts before the environmental impact statement (or
form) has been examined, construction will be ordered to stop.
onstrating that the largest group of people in China is aged from 10 to 74
Public individuals are not allowed to bring environmental public interest lawsuits.
(84.46%). More specifically, among the respondents, the children under Environmental pollution behavior applies liability without fault.
18 years old are about 5.51% and China has 5.17% of children aged The relevant units remain confidential to promote citizenship reports if pollution
15–19. Responders who older than 50 years old are about 28.86% and behavior.
China has 24.11% of people older aged 50–70. Of all correspondents China implements a sewage permit system.
If polluters refuse to correct their illegal behaviors, they will be punished by a daily
aged in the range of 10–74, 20% are between 19 and 30 and 41.75%
penalty.
are between 31 and 50. Among the respondents, 29.78% and 35.85% Serious pollution of the environment may result in criminal liability.
are the corresponding rates. With regard to monthly income, as most
questionnaire distributed in the provincial capital city where citizens
are relatively rich, 6.61% of the response group report income below 3001 and 6000 RMB; 25.73% have an income of 6001–9000 RMB; and
than 1000 Chinese yuan (RMB); 10.11% of them have an income be- 18.19% have an income N12,000 RMB. The average income of all respon-
tween 1001 and 3000 RMB; 39.52% of them report income between dents is around 5500 RMB. As a comparison, according to the Beijing
 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558 7

Statistical Yearbook (2018)2, the average income of the citizens in Bei- Table 3
jing was 5665 RMB. The survey participants cover a variety of occupa- Sample description.

tions, including civil servants (24.26%), students (18.2%), enterprise Responders' characteristics Level Percentages
employees (45.77%), and others (11.58%). In general, in terms of age, in- Gender Male 34.19
come and career, the socioeconomic profile of the sample is representa- Female 65.81
tive for Chinese citizens. Age Younger than 18 5.51
18–30 29.78
31–50 35.85
4.4. Data processing
Older than 51 28.86
Income (RMB) Less than 1000 6.61
In the actual use of questionnaire values, legal variables are classified 1000–3000 10.11
variables. Because the questions about law are the judgment questions, 3001–6000 39.52
according to the data, the average correctness of each person is 4.9 ques- 6001—9000 25.73
More than 9000 18.19
tions; thus, the boundary is 4.9. If the answer is N4.9, it is classified as Career Students 18.20
high legal consciousness, and the value is 1; if the problem is lower Enterprise employees 45.77
than 4.9, it is classified as low legal consciousness. The assignment Civil servants 24.26
value is 0. There is no significant difference between the two types of Others 11.58
people.

5. Results for the shortcomings of traditional regression analysis and factor analy-
sis, and can analyze the relationship of multiple factors and multiple ef-
5.1. Measurement model testing fects and latent variables (Byrne and Stewart, 2006; Hair et al., 2006;
Hair et al., 1998). In this paper, none of the variables were single vari-
This paper used AMOS21 and SPSS statistics 25 to verify the con- ables, including latent variables, observed variables, and the interaction
struct validity of the scale. Table 3 shows the reliability and validity between variables. Therefore, rather than traditional regression analy-
results. sis, we used SEM. Based on the model fitting degree test, the data results
AMOS was first used for confirmatory factor analysis to examine the obtained by the final model are a 2.525 chi-square degree of freedom
internal consistency by observing goodness of fit with the hypothetical ratio, GFI = 0.906, CFI = 0.937, NFI = 0.900, TLI = 0.927, RMSEA =
model. The results showed that the latent variables are sufficiently 0.053, which are close to or have reached the standard of good fitting
strong to interpret the explicit variable. The standardized factor load- degree. Table 5 indicates no significant deviation between the final
ings of 27 observed variables were maintained between 0.685 and model and the real data.
0.912, and all were above the standard of 0.5. The overall fit of the mea- In Table 6, the hypothesis we proposed before has been answered.
surement model was up to standard (χ2/df = 1.555, GFI = 0.942, CFI = According to the coefficient (beta = 0.222, p = 0.000), H3 is supported,
0.977, NFI = 0.938, TLI = 0.971, RMSEA = 0.032), indicating the high hold that IA has a positive impact on citizens' environmental intention.
degree of the validity of the measurement. According to the coefficient (beta = 0.288, p = 0.000), H5 is supported,
Three methods are commonly used to evaluate homogeneity of indi- hold that OA has a positive impact on citizens' environmental intention.
cators: split-half reliability, Nuder-Richardson formulas, and Cronbach’ According to the coefficient (beta = 0.232, p = 0.000), H7 is supported,
alpha. This paper used Cronbach's alpha method to test construct reli- hold that subjective norm has a positive effect on citizens'
ability. The high correlation between the measured items results in a
high alpha score, proving homogeneity. Researchers have generally Table 4
adopted the Nunnally's standard (Nunnally, 1978), which is acceptable Results of confirmatory factor analysis.
when the alpha value is at or above 0.7. The results showed that the Construct Indicator Standardized Cronbach's Average
Cronbach's alpha scores of nine latent variables were N0.7, verifying factor alpha value variance
the stability and reliability of the construct. loadings extracted
The convergent validity and discriminant validity of the scale are Inward attitude IA1 0.839 0.909 0.77
also necessary prerequisites for discussing the causal relationship be- IA2 0.912
tween variables. Convergence validity means that the scores of the IA3 0.883
Outward attitude OA1 0.836 0.871 0.70
same construct should be highly correlated in different measurement
OA2 0.884
modes. Fornell and Larcker (1981) proposed estimating it by calculating OA3 0.783
the average variance extraction (AVE), which should be higher than 0.5 Subjective norm SN1 0.815 0.87 0.69
otherwise the convergent validity cannot be accepted. The results in SN2 0.856
Table 4 show that the AVE of the nine factors in the model was up to SN3 0.822
Perceived behavioral control PCC1 0.687 0.701 0.54
standard of the validity. In addition, I discriminant validity can be ap- (citizen) PCC2 0.786
proved if the AVE value is higher than the square of the correlation co- Perceived behavioral control PCA1 0.839 0.798 0.67
efficient between the latent variables. The results in Table 4 also (activist) PCA2 0.792
confirm that the measurement of latent variables can be distinguished Citizen behavior intention CBI1 0.816 0.849 0.85
CBI2 0.86
from other scales.
CBI3 0.749
CBI4 0.647
5.2. Structural equation model analysis Activist behavior intention ABI1 0.786 0.807 0.59
ABI2 0.787
ABI3 0.721
AMOS 21.0 was used to analyze the structural equation model (SEM)
Citizen behavior CB1 0.751 0.842 0.77
in this paper. SEM is a multivariate statistical technique that combines CB2 0.726
factor analysis and path analysis. SEM includes analysis of variance, re- CB3 0.783
gression analysis, path analysis, and factor analysis, which makes up CB4 0.78
Activist behavior AB1 0.767 0.807 0.58
2 AB2 0.781
For more information, one could refer to the website of National Bureau of Statistics of
AB3 0.744
China (http://www.stats.gov.cn).
8 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558

environmental intention. According to the coefficient (beta = 0.191, Table 6

p = 0.000), H9 is supported, hold that PCC has a positive effect on citi- Fit index of the hypothetical model and final model (N = 533).

zens' environmental intention. Activist intention has a similar result. Model χ2/df GFI CFI NFI TLI RMSEA
Due to the path coefficient and p value, all four paths are significant Criteria ≤3 ≥0.9 ≥0.9 ≥0.9 ≥0.9 ≤0.08
and positive, which suggests H2, H4, H6, and H8 are supported. Regard- Hypothetical 1.555 0.942 0.977 0.938 0.971 0.032
ing the correlations between intention and behavior, the coefficient Final 2.525 0.906 0.937 0.900 0.927 0.053
shows that both types of intentions positively relate to behaviors Note. CFI = comparative fit index; df = degree of freedom; GFI = goodness of fit index;
(beta = 0.288, p = 0.000; beta = 0.232, p = 0.000), which indicates NFI = normed fit index; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation; TLI =
H1 and H2 are supported. Tucker-Lewis index.

5.3. Moderating role test of law between the publics' legal cognition and activists' environmental inten-
tion a have significant and positive predictive effect on activists' envi-
According to the method proposed by the literature (Preacher and ronmental behavior (β = 0.15, p b 0.01). To plot the interaction effect,
Hayes, 2004), the moderate effect of legal cognition in the relationship activists' environmental intention and publics' legal cognition took the
between environmental intention and environmental behavior was ex- values of one standard deviation below (i.e., low level) and above
amined. All variables were normalized, and all operations were per- (i.e., high level) the mean, as shown in Fig. 3.This finding shows that
formed with the SPSS macro PROCESS 2.15. the impact of activists' environmental intention on activists' environ-
To test the moderate effect, the results support that (Table 7) citi- mental behavior is regulated by the publics' legal cognition. Further-
zens' environmental intention predicts citizens' environmental behav- more, as the simple slope diagrams shown in Fig. 3, the public legal
ior significantly and positively (β = 0.36, p b 0.001). In addition, the cognition score is higher than the average plus one standard deviation
interaction item between the publics' legal cognition and citizens' envi- as the high group, while the lower than the average minus one standard
ronmental intention has a significant and positive predictive effect on deviation is the low group. Specifically, as the level of legal awareness
citizens' environmental behavior (β = 0.29, p b 0.001). This finding among the public increases, the direct effect of activists' environmental
shows that the impact of citizens' environmental intention on citizens' intention on activists' environmental behavior continues to increase.
environmental behavior is regulated by the publics' legal cognition. To
plot the interaction effect, citizens' environmental intention and publics' 6. Discussions
legal cognition took the values of one standard deviation below (i.e., low
level) and above (i.e., high level) the mean, as shown in Fig. 2. A simple 6.1. Public environmental factors based on TPB
slope diagram, which reflects the change of the regression coefficient
with different moderate variable, is generally used to verify and illus- The results indicate that perceived behavioral control, subjective
trate the effect of a predictive variable on an outcome variable. In norms, inward attitude, and outward attitude indirectly affect these
Figs. 2 and 3, the two lines in the figure are as following: M + SD repre- two types of environmental behaviors through behavioral intentions,
sents the case when the moderate variable is one standard deviation confirming that TPB can be applied to the environmental field.
above the mean, while M-SD is one standard deviation below the Attitude plays a positive role in both environmental behavior inten-
mean. In both figures, the moderate variables and slopes are clearly pro- tions. The higher the environmental protection attitude, the stronger
portionally variable, indicating that the moderate variable positively af- the environmental intention it is. This paper divides intentions into
fects the effect of the predictive variable to the outcome variable. Taking two aspects. The outward attitude refers to the individual's view about
Fig. 2 as an example, citizen's environmental behavior is the outcome public organizations taking positive actions to protect the environment.
variable, citizen's environmental intention is the predictive variable, As individuals increasingly recognize the effectiveness of external fac-
and legal cognition is the moderator variable. The positive slope indi- tors (e.g., government, society, and law), they gradually believe in
cates that the effect of the predictive variable on outcome variable is these political, social, and legal environmental protection activities
positive, which means when one standard deviation above the average (Kilbourne and Pickett, 2008; Fransson and Gärling, 1999), and there-
level of legal cognition, citizen intention on citizen behavior signifi- fore, their environmental protection intention ultimately increases.
cantly higher than the original. Similarly, less than one standard devia- This confirms the positive correlation between environmental behav-
tion is worse. Specifically, as the level of legal awareness among the iors and individual trust in the national protection measures in the liter-
public increases, the direct effect of citizens' environmental intention ature (Kilbourne and Pickett, 2008; Leonidou et al., 2010; Yang and
on citizens' environmental behavior is also increase (Table 9). Weber, 2019). Inward attitude also affects two types of environmental
To test the moderate effect of law between activist intention and ac- protection behavior. Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory explains
tivist behavior, the results support that (Table 8) activists' environmen- this: an individual's attitude and behavior are coordinated because indi-
tal intention predicts activists' environmental behavior significantly and viduals want to maintain the balance between their attitude and behav-
positively (β = 0.31, p b 0.001). In addition, the interaction item ior to avoid cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957). Therefore,
individuals with a strong attitude toward environmental protection
Table 5 are more likely to take environmental actions.
Convergent and discriminant validity. Perceived behavior control has a greater impact on citizens' environ-
Latent variable IA OA SN PCC PCA CBI ABI CB AB LAW
mental behavior compared with activists' environmental behavior. The
stronger the PBC, the more environmental protection intentions in-
IA 0.88
crease. From a psychological perspective, individuals pursue conve-
OA 0.41 0.84
SN 0.30 0.40 0.83 nience and certainty, and convenience psychology is an important
PCC 0.28 0.30 0.25 0.74 factor in environmental behavior (Zhang et al., 2016; D. Li et al.,
PCA 0.21 0.03 0.43 0.38 0.82 2019). Results confirm the importance of PBC recorded in prior litera-
CBI 0.45 0.51 0.44 0.20 0.16 0.92
ture (Zhang et al., 2016; Amutenya et al., 2009; Sidique et al., 2010; X.
ABI 0.35 0.36 0.39 0.33 0.28 0.27 0.77
CB 0.26 0.22 0.31 0.43 0.28 0.64 0.35 0.88 Zhang et al., 2017).
AB 0.15 0.02 0.37 0.12 0.59 0.13 0.32 0.30 0.76 Subjective norms also have a higher impact on activists' environ-
LAW 0.08 0.12 0.10 0.20 0.11 0.13 0.12 0.12 0.13 mental behavior than citizens' environmental behavior. The greater
Note. Numbers in the diagonal row (bold) are the square of AVE. Numbers below the di- the perceived social pressure, the stronger the environmental protec-
agonal are the correlation coefficients between the constructs. tion intention is, which is consistent with empirical evidence for several
 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558 9

Table 7
Direct effect of path analysis.

Equilibrium correlations Standardized estimate(β) p value C.R.

Inward attitude ➔ citizenship environmental intention 0.222 0.000 4.887

Outward attitude➔citizenship environmental intention 0.288 0.000 5.812
Subjective norm ➔ citizenship environmental intention 0.232 0.000 5.009
PCC ➔ citizenship environmental intention 0.191 0.000 3.748
PCA➔ activists' environmental intention 0.186 b0.05 3.252
Subjective norm ➔ activists' environmental intention 0.201 0.000 3.348
Outward attitude ➔ activists' environmental intention 0.203 0.000 3.578
inward attitude ➔ activists' environmental intention 0.179 0.000 3.472
Citizenship environmental intention ➔BC 0.288 0.000 6.014
Activists' environmental intention ➔ BA 0.232 0.000 6.902

Note. Standardized estimate: path coefficient after standardized regression; PCC refers to perceived behavioral control of citizen behavior; PCA refers to perceived behavioral control of
activist behavior; BC refers to citizens' environmental behavior; BA refers to activists' environmental behavior.

specific behaviors (X. Zhang et al., 2017; Shi et al., 2017; Park and Ha, law, they enhance the daily environmental protection intention of resi-
2014). From a socio-cultural perspective, individuals are more likely to dents more effectively and guide residents to carry out daily environ-
observe or model the ideas of their group, thereby influenced in their mental protection behavior, which is also consistent with the
beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (Moutinho, 1987). This point is more literature (Sutherland, 2010). More specifically, for residents who al-
prominent in China. Traditional Confucianism emphasizes “filial piety” ready have a high degree of daily environmental protection intention
and harmonious relationships between people. The governance goal is and regular daily environmental protection behavior, laws and regula-
for all members of society to obey social morals and avoid rebellion tions can strengthen their intention (Sunstein, 1996) and stimulate
(Frederickson, 2002). Influenced by this, Chinese citizens are more will- their sense of responsibility. For residents with a relatively low intention
ing to accept the ideas of others (e.g., parents, brothers, superiors) and to protect the environment, laws and regulations can be instructive and
put them into action. enlightening (Nader, 1965), create their environmental intentions, and
promote daily environmental behavior. The influence of activists' envi-
6.2. Moderating effects of legal cognition ronmental intention on behavior is also regulated by legal cognition. In
the field of positive behavior, laws and regulations have incentives and
The empirical results indicate that the legal cognition plays a positive safeguard provisions in soft law. Therefore, for residents who already
and significant role in the regulation of citizens' environmental inten- had a positive intention to protect the environment, laws and regula-
tion on citizens' environmental behavior as well as activists' environ- tions have an encouraging and enlightening effect, emphasize their
mental intention on their environmental behavior. It is consistent rights, and ensure that they will not be hurt. The laws and regulations
with the literature: Laws and regulations can promote environmental could reduce residents' risk expectations and behavioral costs (Otten
protection behavior and help prevent pollution behavior (B. Zhang and Van der Pligt, 1992), and weaken their doubts, prompting them to
et al., 2018). make actual positive environmental behavior (Brewer et al., 2004).
To analyze the regulatory role on intervention intention of laws and Moreover, the impact of activists' environmental intention on be-
regulations in the process of behavior, we first investigate the perspec- havior is regulated by legal cognition to a greater extent, and the influ-
tive of laws and regulations. The environmental laws and regulations in ence of citizens' environmental intention on behavior is relatively less-
China are also applicable to the general classification of laws, which can regulated by legal cognition. Multiple factors are observed. First, the be-
be further divided into two types of law: soft and hard (Attari et al., havior cost of citizens' environmental behavior differs from that of ac-
2009). Soft law provides incentives, is protective, and plays a positive tivists' environmental behavior, and citizens' environmental behavior
guiding role. Hard law is prohibitive, and rules out the negative prohibi- is more spontaneous (Fritsvold, 2009). In China, active environmental
tion of acts and legal consequences such as specific punishment mea- behavior requires public participation in environmental governance
sures that correspond to violations of such laws. Among China's and supervision, with higher risks, higher costs, and more complex pro-
environmental laws, most of the laws and regulations applicable to or cedures, and the public is less willing in this respect and has a lower in-
specifically aimed at individual residents are incentives. Based on re- tention to be active in environmental protection; additionally, citizens'
sults, legal cognition regulates the influence of citizens' environmental environmental behavior such as saving water and electricity and
intention on behavior. In the field of daily behavior, laws and regula- protecting animals and plants are more inclined to the moral require-
tions are mostly incentive provisions in soft law; compared with hard ments (Wigley, 2007). Citizens' environmental behavior is also more

Fig. 2. Moderating effect of residents' legal cognition on the relationship between citizens' Fig. 3. Moderating effect of public legal cognition on the relationship between public
environmental protection intention and citizens' environmental protection behavior at activists' environmental intention and activists' environmental behavior at two levels of
two levels of legal cognition; that is, for the mean, for one SD below the mean and for legal cognition, that is, for the mean, for one SD below the mean and for the maximum
the maximum obtained value (as one SD above the mean was outside the range of data). obtained value (as one SD above the mean was outside the range of data).
10 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558

Table 8
Regression analysis of the moderating effect of public legal cognition1.

Regression equation Whole fitting index Significance of regression coefficient

Outcome variable Predictive variable R R2 F β LLCI ULCI t

Citizens' environmental behavior Public legal cognition (A) 0.43 0.18 39.90⁎⁎⁎ 0.08 −0.00 0.15 1.96
Citizen's environmental intention (B) 0.36 0.28 0.44 8.64⁎⁎⁎
A×B 0.29 0.22 0.35 8.62⁎⁎⁎

Note: LLCI stands for bootstrap lower limit, ULCI stands for bootstrap upper limit; *p b 0.05, **p b 0.01, ***p b 0.001; each continuous variable in the model is normalized and then brought
into the regression equation, the same below.

inclined to moral standards. The public needs only self-regulation and intentions and indirectly affect two types of behaviors, confirming the
restrictions to fulfill moral standards and engage in more ethical behav- applicability of the planned behavior theory in citizens' environmental
ior (Zipf, 1949); thus, this type of behavior is less risky, cheaper, and behavior and activists' environmental behavior. Among them, outward
simpler. The public intention is higher and the behavior is more fre- attitude has the largest direct impact on the two types of behavioral in-
quent; and self-regulation promotes environmental protection activi- tentions; perceived behavior control has a higher impact on the citizens'
ties more than mandatory regulations (Trivedi et al., 2018). Therefore, environmental behavior, and the subjective norm has a higher influence
residents' personal morality and intention play a greater role in their on the activists' environmental behavior. Besides, legal cognition posi-
daily environmental protection behavior, and the role of law is relatively tively moderates the relationship between environmental intentions
small. Second, in addition to laws and regulations, implementation of and behavior. As the level of the public's legal awareness increases,
laws and regulations is notable. Enforcement determines the effective- the direct effect of these two types of environmental intentions on envi-
ness of the regulations (Akella and Cannon, 2017; Dongol and Heinen, ronmental behaviors would increase continuously, suggesting that the
2012; Heyes, 2000). The stronger the implementation, the higher the mandatory weaker law may also play an important role for the individ-
credibility of laws and regulations, and the easier it is for the public to ual's behaviors.
trust and be encouraged. Additionally, the government plays an impor-
tant role in the implementation of laws and regulations, and the cooper- 7.2. Implications and suggestions
ation between the government and society can maximize the role of the
law (Lo and Fryxell, 2005; Dendler and Dewick, 2016). Because the gov- This study provides the following recommendations for relevant
ernment has less impact on citizens' environmental behavior of individ- government departments and legal departments based on the influenc-
ual residents, in addition to market intervention, there are fewer other ing factors of environmental behavior and the moderating effect of legal
positive measures, and for positive environmental protection behavior, cognition. These policy implications could shed some lights on the for-
the government can implement more positive measures, for example, it mulation and improvement of environmental laws and regulations, es-
has substantial influence on the confidentiality of personal information pecially for the developing countries facing similar serious
when reporting polluting enterprises and the adoption of residents' environmental problems.
suggestions, which are conducive to strengthening the enforcement of First, considering the importance of outward attitude revealed in our
laws and regulations. Stronger enforcement of laws and regulations empirical study, policy guidance and legal publicity should continue to
also has a greater role in regulating the behavior of residents. Therefore, be the backbone of the modern environmental governance system. On
the regulatory effect of legal cognition on the influence of positive envi- one hand, society should increase the publicity of the importance and
ronmental protection intention on positive environmental protection effectiveness of environmental protection by means of policies, public
behavior is stronger. opinion, and laws to increase public attention to ecological protection,
enhancing public environmental enthusiasm. On the other hand, the
7. Conclusions and policy implications credibility of the government at different levels and NGOs should be
constructed firmly to enhance the public's confidence to ecological pro-
7.1. Conclusions tection. For example, the government could regularly publish accurate
reports of environmental violations and pollution control violations to
This study employs the structural equation model to explore the de- make citizens believe in and follow the government's regulatory direc-
terminants of citizens' environmental behavior and activists' environ- tion. Additionally, more people recognize the necessity of major politi-
mental behavior based on the theory of planned behavior. The legal cal change to protect the environment compared to other variables
cognition is introduced as a moderator variable to narrow the based on the questionnaire data. Except for education from communi-
intention–behavior gap, which provides new ideas to the policymakers ties and schools (Chen and Tung, 2014), the government could motivate
to enhance law effectiveness in regulating individual environmental be- NGOs and medias to increase the publicity of ecological and environ-
haviors in the developing countries with serious environmental prob- mental governance actions and effects.
lems. The empirical results indicate that perceived behavior control, Second, considering the importance of perceived behavior control,
subjective norms, and attitudes all positively affect behavioral the government should strengthen the popularity of green facilities

Table 9
Regression analysis of the moderating effect of public legal cognition2.

Regression equation Whole fitting index Significance of regression coefficient

Outcome variable Predictive variable R R2 F β LLCI ULCI t

Activists' environmental behavior Public legal cognition (A) 0.34 0.11 23.18⁎⁎⁎ 0.08 0.00 0.16 1.99⁎
Activists' environmental intention (B) 0.31 0.23 0.39 7.39⁎⁎⁎
A×B 0.15 0.08 0.22 4.01⁎⁎

Note: LLCI represents the lower limit of bootstrap, and ULCI represents the upper limit of bootstrap; *p b 0.05, **p b 0.01, ***p b 0.001; All continuous variables in the model are put into the
regression equation after standardized treatment, and the following is the same.
 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558 11

such as recyclable trashcans and public transportation, and expand and comprehensive and clearer. This is the case not only for China but also
simplify the means of public participation in the environmental protec- for the other developing countries that encounter similar environmen-
tion. On the one hand, strengthening the penetration rate of green facil- tal problems.
ities can make people more enthusiastic about daily environmental One of the possible measures is to increase the proportion of hard
protection. For instance, Shanghai recently started to pilot compulsory law, which refers to laws and regulations that can be enforced by the
garbage sorting. This result suggests that the government should in- government, in the current environmental legislation system to pro-
crease the density of classified garbage bins, establish additional waste mote public motivation of environmental protection. The government
collection stations and processing stations close to residents, and pro- should give financial support to citizens' environmental behaviors and
vide green product uniform marks to facilitate residents' recognition. establish a public service litigation lawyer system, so that the legal
These means are expected to significantly enhance the convenience rights could be respected and protected in the litigations related with
and the public willingness to participate in the trash classification. On public environmental interests. Moreover, the government should not
the other hand, improving the platform and channels of public environ- only protect citizens' environmental rights and supervision rights but
mental protection can enhance people's enthusiasm about environmen- also create convenient conditions to facilitate and promote the residents
tal protection. N62% of respondents knew little or nothing for the ways to exercise their legal rights effectively. For example, the government
to report environmentally unfriendly behaviors, suggesting that Chi- could collect public ideas and suggestions on environmental issues reg-
nese people still have limited knowledge and methods to participate ularly (e.g., by setting complaint boxes or add online feedback service in
in the environmental governance. For example, China's environmental official website) and keep complaints anonymous to encourage the par-
nongovernmental organizations (environmental NGOs) did not exist ticipation in the supervision of the government. Additionally, the gov-
until mid- 1990s, and they are in general not active. Chinese environ- ernment should strengthen the enforcement of laws to regulate
mental NGOs are usually small in scale, poor in access to capital re- residents' behaviors, especially active environmental protection behav-
sources, and inadequate in management systems (Tang, 2011). iors. After that, legal provisions can be applied to environmental protec-
Therefore, the government should enrich and simplify public reporting tion—instead of being a mere piece of paper. Finally, the government
channels and encourage the communities to carry out various environ- should increases its focus on the guiding role of the law on residents' be-
mental activities to provide more means so as to facilitate common cit- havior, enhance residents' awareness of environmental protection, and
izens to participate in environmental governance. For example, the promote their practice of environmental protection.
government can work with NGOs to establish a public environmental
media platform and a big data center to provide people with time- 7.3. Limitations and future research
saving and economical approaches to co-governance, and the govern-
ment can use a variety of media to publicize the platform to increase Although this is the first study to quantitatively investigate the influ-
the influence of the platform on networks, on streets, and in villages ence of environmental law on public environmental protection activi-
and encourage the public participate in environmental governance. Vig- ties, there are still some remaining limitations, which could be
orously developing environmental protection industries and environ- possible research directions for future studies. One limitation of this
mental NGOs is also a means to improve the public's active study is to treat environmental law as a whole bloc and we did not con-
environmental protection behaviors. For example, relax the conditions sider the effects of different and specific provisions. Environmental law
for establishing and optimizing management systems, grant tax-free is a relatively complex system that contains many specific aspects. Due
benefits and welfare, and establish information feedback mechanisms to the limited previous studies and time, in this paper, the environmen-
to enhance the effect of incentives. All these measures can maximize tal law is taken as a whole, and the typical law is extracted from differ-
the role of PBC in generating citizens' intention to participate in environ- ent slip laws for testing. The law provisions in different fields and
mental protection. pollution issues are not distinguished and further analyzed. Thus,
In addition, the significant influence of subjective norms variable starting from this study, future researchers can conduct specific tests
also implies the importance of social norms and social expectations. on different aspects of the law, such as the environmental protection
The social pressure from environmental protection enhances the enthu- regulations on atmosphere, water, noise, soil, etc., and accordingly ana-
siasm of citizens to adopt environmental protection behavior. There- lyze the similarities and differences of the laws on public environmental
fore, environmental protection education for families, schools, behaviors.
communities, and the media is necessary. To create a social atmosphere
of environmental protection, we should persuade celebrities to partici- Declaration of competing interest
pate in environmental protection and promote environmental policies
and laws. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
More importantly, the regulatory effect of the law verified in this interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
study reminds the legislator to focus on the effect of the law on the res- ence the work reported in this paper.
idents, not just the legal control and regulations of enterprises. In the
past, the government cared about the harmful effect of pollution and Acknowledgment
emphasized the importance of environmental protection. However,
the government usually paid more attention to the activities of the The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natu-
firms and companies. Something new has happened in recent years, ral Science Foundation of China (71761137001, 71403015, 71521002),
as environmental laws and regulations begin to lay more emphasis on the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (9162013), the key research
individual residents. In 2012, “Information Disclosure and Public Partic- program of the Beijing Social Science Foundation (17JDYJA009), the Na-
ipation” for the first time became an isolated chapter in China's Environ- tional Key Research and Development Program of China
mental Protection Law, which identified citizen's three specific (2016YFA0602801, 2016YFA0602603), and the Joint Development Pro-
environmental rights in legal form (i.e., obtaining environmental infor- gram of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education. The authors
mation, participating in environmental protection, and supervising en- want to express our sincere gratitude to Associate Professor Dr. Lin Jia
vironmental protection). Recently, Beijing city has formally announced at Beijing Institute of Technology for his helpful and useful comments
to start garbage classification trials, and Beijing city would soon make and suggestions during the revision of this paper. The authors are also
local laws and regulations for obligated garbage classification. However, very grateful to three anonymous reviewers and Co Editor-in-Chief Prof.
to further enhance the regulatory power, the law still needs further im- Dr. Damià Barceló for their insightful comments that helped us suffi-
provement and development to make the provisions more ciently improve the quality of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies.
12 J. Chen et al. / Science of the Total Environment 714 (2020) 136558

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