| 其他摘要 | The increasing amount of waste and the environmental pollution caused by landfill and incineration are seriously affecting people's physical and mental health, and leading to the increase of mental disorder such as anxiety and depression. Furthermore, many mental disorders are related to environmental pollution. As an effective means of waste reduction, recycling and harmlessness, waste separation is an important part of the global waste management strategy.
However, waste source separation has been a social dilemma due to a low participation rate. On the one hand, the social dilemma could be solved through externally enforced regulations. On the other hand, it requires cooperation with oneself and others. Others' behaviors greatly affect our actions. The interpersonal relationship is also the first hidden trouble of mental health problems. The imbalance of perception of self and others is easy to lead to various physical and mental problems. In order to maintain the psychological balance, people often enhance themselves in comparison with others. Therefore, this research attempted to solve this dilemma by exploring the effect of mandatory (versus voluntary) policies on waste separation from the perspective of the self-versus-others based on deterrence theory and self-enhancement motivation, and explore the mediating effect of perceived policy effectiveness between the policy and waste separation behaviors.
separation from the perspective of the self-versus-others based on deterrence theory and self-enhancement motivation, and explore the mediating effect of perceived policy effectiveness between the policy and waste separation behaviors.
Study 1 used hypothetical scenarios to guide participants into different policy environments and perception angles. To explore the impact of different policies and perception angles on waste separation behaviors and attitude. A 2 (policy: mandatory vs. voluntary) X 2 (perception role: self vs. others) between-participants design was employed in Study 1 .The results showed that: 1) Participants perceived that the likelihood of residents' waste separation behaviors is significantly higher in the mandatory policy condition than in the voluntary policy condition. 2) Participants perceived themselves to have significantly more waste separation behaviors and significantly more positive attitude toward waste separation than others.
In order to confirm the findings of Study 1，we performed Study 2 by adding a baseline condition (no-implementation policy). A 3 (policy: mandatory vs. voluntary vs. no-implemented) X 2 (perception role: self vs. others) between-participants design was employed in Study 2. Almost in consistent with results of Study 2, there are three main findings in this study. First, when residents predicted others' waste separation behaviors, the mandatory policy had a significant impact on waste separation behaviors. However, when residents predicted their own waste separation behaviors, the difference between the mandatory policy and voluntary policy was not significant. Second, residents perceived themselves to have a significantly more positive attitude and more behaviors on waste separation than others in the no-implemented policy condition and the voluntary policy condition. Third, there was no significant difference on waste separation behaviors between the no-implementation policy and the voluntary policy. And the self-enhancement bias disappeared in the mandatory policy, the perceived self-others discrepancies was not significant.
In order to confirm the generality of this self-others discrepancies, we conducted Study 3 and selected adolescents as participate. This study utilized a 2 (Policy: mandatory vs. voluntary) X 2 (perception angle: self vs. others) mixed design where the policy condition applied a between-participants design and the perception angle condition applied a within-participants design. Three main findings are as follow: 1)When perceiving others, participants had more waste separation behaviors in the mandatory policy. When perceiving themselves, there was no significance between different policies conditions. 2) Participants assessed themselves to be better than others in waste separation behavior no matter in the mandatory policy or in the voluntary policy. 3) The perceived others' behaviors had a positive impact on their own behaviors.
In study 4, participants were selected from Shanghai and Suzhou to examine the effectiveness of the mandatory policy in the real environment. This study explored the differences between the perceived policy effectiveness and waste separation behaviors and investigated the mediating effect of perceived policy effectiveness between policy and waste separation behaviors. There are three main findings. First, residents had higher perceived policy effectiveness and more waste separation behaviors in the mandatory policy. Second, perceived policy effectiveness related positively to waste separation behaviors. Third, perceived policy effectiveness acted as a partial mediating effect between the policy and waste separation behaviors.
All these findings demonstrated the key role of supervision in policy implementation, and find the mediating effect of perceived policy effectiveness. And there was a strong self-enhancement bias in the field of waste separation. Moreover, the perceived others' behaviors related positively to their own behaviors. This research provides a deeper understanding that can promote engagement in waste separation behavior and provides a scientific basis for waste separation policy-making to reduce environmental pollution and promote people's mental health. |
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