Understanding PM2.5 risk information seeking and processing among South Koreans: evidence of desensitization?

ABSTRACT

This study examines how South Koreans seek and process information about PM2.5 air pollution, amidst concerns of desensitization to its health impacts due to prolonged exposure. A survey was conducted with a sample of 1,500 respondents. Our findings reveal that exposure to PM2.5-related information is positively correlated with risk perceptions and negative emotions. The effect of exposure to PM2.5 information on current knowledge regarding PM2.5 is mediated by perceived information gathering capacity. Interestingly, respondents perceive themselves to have sufficient knowledge about PM2.5, surpassing the threshold knowledge level. This observation contrasts with earlier studies on risk information, suggesting a unique dynamic in the context of PM2.5 pollution. Our findings support the mediation hypotheses, suggesting that exposure and risk perceptions are positively correlated with information seeking effort and systematic processing by eliciting negative emotions. The mediation analysis results also suggest that perceived severity has a more substantial influence on risk information behaviors than perceived susceptibility.

KEYWORDS:

• Information sufficiency
• prior exposure to risk information
• perceived information gathering capacity
• risk desensitization
• air pollution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2018S1A3A2074932).

Notes on contributors

Joon Soo Lim

Joon Soo Lim (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an associate professor of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. His research focuses on strategic communication to address perceptual and behavioral problems associated with hate speech, misinformation, community health and environmental justice ([email protected]).

Jun Zhang

Jun Zhang (Ph.D., Syracuse University) is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at Middle Tennessee State University. Her research interests are in the areas of crisis communication, health misinformation, and the impact of emerging communication technologies on communicative behavior ([email protected]).

Junga Kim

Junga Kim (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an associate professor in the School of Communication at the University of North Florida. Her primary research focuses on information seeking behavior, interpersonal communication on the internet and the effects of interactive advertising. Her work has been published in academic journals such as Journal of Marketing Communication, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Health Communication, Risk Management, Online Information Review, Asian Journal of Communication, etc. ([email protected])

Chunsik Lee

Chunsik Lee (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an associate professor in the School of Communication at the University of North Florida. His research interests focus on new media advertising effects, consumer online trust and social media. His research has been published in academic journals including Journal of Marketing Communications, Online Information Review, Asian Journal of Communication, International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, etc. ([email protected])