Promoting Behaviors to Mitigate the Effects of Climate Change: Using the Extended Parallel Process Model at the Personal and Collective Level in China

This study explored strategies to help mitigate the effects of climate change among members of the Chinese public by broadening the extended parallel process model (EPPM) to the personal and collective levels. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment was designed to examine the effects of threat (personal vs. societal), efficacy (personal vs. collective), and climate change beliefs (high vs. low) on participants’ personal intention to help mitigate the effects of climate change. A total of 421 Chinese citizens participated in this experimental study. The results reveal significant main effects of threat, efficacy, and climate change beliefs on personal mitigation intentions. Moreover, individuals who perceived high personal threat and high collective efficacy toward climate change reported the highest intention to take personal actions to mitigate the effects of climate change, regardless of the participants’ levels of climate change beliefs.