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South Korea has the highest concentration of particulate matter(PM) on average among OECD countries. South Korean governmental agencies and local governments are putting forward strong regulatory measures to solve problems regarding PM pollution. Besides regulatory policies, citizens' cooperation is essential in making the policies work. Especially, when it comes to environmental issues, which do not cause immediate damage to individuals, a more socio-cognitive approach should be considered to enhance individual’s participation. Along these lines, our focus is on individual’s cognitive processing for PM reduction from a perspective of environmental communication, which is differentiated from the prior PM-related literature(considering PM as a risk and dealing with individual’s risk perception and preventive intentions). Specifically, this study examined how moral norms affect the intention to decrease levels of PM, by integrating the theory of planned behavior(TPB) and the norm activation model(NAM). Individual moral norms have been emphasized in research on eco-friendly behaviors(behavioral intentions). For hypothesis testing, a total of 1,500 respondents from a national online survey company in South Korea participated in this study. The structural equation model was performed with the AMOS 18 program, and the maximum likelihood estimation was used. With the acceptable model fit from the structural equation modeling approach(CFI = .92, NFI = .92, RMSEA = .07), we found that attitude, self-efficacy and moral norms were positively related to behavioral intention. In other words, the hypotheses were supported within our integrated research model. On the other hand, there was no significant relationship between subjective norms and behavioral intention. Awareness of consequence, which was an antecedent variable to moral norms and subjective norms, showed a positive relationship with both types of norms. Last, the bootstrapping method confirmed an indirect effect of awareness of consequence on behavioral intention through moral norms. In sum, moral norms work with other constructs in the theory of planned behavior, and awareness of consequence can be a predictor for moral norms. The findings of this study indicate that, in order to implement the PM regulation policies effectively, it is necessary to help people maintain positive attitudes toward PM reduction actions, belief in their ability to participate in relevant regulations, and ethical awareness of environmental issues. The results regarding moral norms should be replicated in other environmental contexts or with different topics to conform the explanatory power of moral norms. The theoretical and practical implications and limitations are discussed in more detail.

 Citation  

구윤희, 안지수, 노기영. (2020). 미세먼지 감축 행동 의도에 영향을 주는 요인 연구: 계획된 행동이론 (TPB) 과 규범활성화 모형 (NAM) 의 통합 적용. 한국언론학보, 64(3), 47-76.