Is Digital Reading Resilient to Air Pollution?

Air pollution is widely known to harm physical health, but its hidden toll on the digital knowledge economy is equally profound. This study reveals that air pollution–induced cognitive strain significantly reduces user engagement on digital reading platforms. When faced with poor air quality, readers adapt to cognitive fatigue by shifting to less demanding hedonic genres, revisiting familiar content, shortening reading sessions, and slowing their reading pace. Although digital platform features, like frictionless switching and personalized recommendations, make these adaptations effortless, they ultimately erode deep, sustained reading. Consequently, a single-unit increase in the air quality index reduces overall reading time by 0.7% and platform spending by 1.2%. For practitioners and platform designers, these findings highlight the need to move beyond simply reducing user effort. Platforms should actively integrate cognitive support tools, such as summary overlays and audio narration, to sustain high-value engagement during periods of environmental stress. For policymakers, this research broadens the recognized societal costs of air pollution to include suppressed participation in cognitively demanding digital activities, reinforcing the economic imperative for stricter environmental controls and potential subsidies for cognitive enrichment.