Research On The Effect And Mechanism Of Guiding Policy On Urban Residents' Behavior To Use Recycled Water

While recycled water is being applied to more fields related to the daily life of urban residents,a new problem has arisen that residents have a bias against the reuse of recycled water.At present,the promotion policy for the reuse of recycled water adopted in China gives priority to mandatory administrative orders but ignores the policy guidance for residents' behavior to use recycled water.Based on the above practical problems,this research combines the characteristics of recycled water reuse as well as the current urban residents' cognitive status of recycled water reuse,then reduces the behavior guiding policy for the potential use of recycled water to environmental motivation stimulating policy,demonstration guiding policy,and knowledge popularization policy,and studies the effect and mechanism of the three policies respectively.(1)Complementary laboratory experiment and field experiment are used to determine the effects of different types of guiding policies on the reuse of recycled water.The method of implicit association test in the research field of social psychology is introduced and used to obtain the implicit attitude close to residents' real attitude towards the reuse of recycled water and draw a research conclusion that residents have a negative implicit attitude towards the reuse of recycled water,thereby verifying residents' bias against the reuse of recycled water;a phenomenon is found that residents' explicit attitude is more positive than their implicit attitude towards the reuse of recycled water,giving a scientific explanation about the practical problem of “widely accepted but not widely used” existing in the reuse of recycled water;then,the mechanisms of different policies are simulated respectively in the laboratory environment to conduct experimental stimulus,and the changes in the implicit attitude of experiment participants between different control groups are compared to find that environmental motivation stimulating stimulus,demonstration guiding stimulus,and knowledge popularization stimulus have a significant positive influence on the implicit attitude of experimental participants towards the reuse of recycled water,and the effect of demonstration guiding policy is the most significant,thereby verifying the effects of different types of policies in the laboratory environment.Considering the disadvantage of laboratory experiment that it is difficult to restore the natural decision-making environment,referring to the research methods related to field experiment in the research field of behavioral economics,and combined with the mechanisms of different policies,the extreme shortage of water resources,the promotion degree of regional recycled water reuse,and the reuse of recycled water in a natural environment are selected as the abstract indicators of environmental motivation stimulating policy,demonstration guiding policy and knowledge popularization policy.The above indicators are taken as control variables,and control groups are set to simulate the mechanisms of different policies.The residents' willingness to accept the reuse of recycled water is taken as a dependent variable,and a structural equation model is used for a variance analysis of data between different control groups.Finally,it is verified under the natural state that the three types of policies have a significant guiding effect on the reuse of recycled water.(2)Combined with the characteristics of recycled water reuse,a structural equation model is established to make an in-depth study of the mechanisms of different guiding policies for the reuse of recycled water.Considering the characteristics of pro-environmental behavior with which the reuse of recycled water is provided,the research in this part introduces the specification activation model which is suitable for explaining the mechanism of producing environmental protection motivation in pro-environmental behavior.Combined with the recycled water reuse characteristics and the self-realization theory,the model is improved and a specification activation model applicable to the reuse of recycled water is established.Through the test of path coefficient and mediating effect in the model,it is found that the attribution of residents' responsibility for water environment pollution may have a positive influence on their water environment protection motivation;residents' awareness of water pollution consequences can influence the attribution of their responsibility for water environment pollution and thus have a positive influence on their water environment protection motivation,thereby explaining the mechanism of producing environmental protection motivation,and clearly depicting the specific path of the abstract concept called environmental protection motivation enhancement in order to provide scientific support for the formulation of environmental protection motivation stimulating policy.Considering that the demonstration guiding policy needs to realize the mechanism of behavioral guidance role through interpersonal influence,the associative self-construction which measures the interdependence between people and others is used as an abstract variable to represent the policy mechanism,and then introduced to the technology acceptance model to expand the classic model.Combined with the characteristics of recycled water reuse,a structural equation model which is suitable for explaining the technology acceptance process of recycled water reuse is established.On this basis,it is found through the test of mediating effect that the intensity of residents' associative self-construction can have a positive influence on their perception of usefulness of and behavior attitude towards the reuse of recycled water,and thus improve residents' acceptance degree of recycled water reuse.The policy mechanism is explained from the perspective of the influence of demonstration guiding policy on the technology acceptance process of recycled water reuse.By sorting the previous research conclusions related to the influence factors of the public reuse of recycled water and drawing on the relevant views of government management and risk management,a theoretical model related to the influence of the comprehension degree of recycled water reuse on the willingness to accept the reuse of recycled water is proposed,and based on research data,structural equation modeling is used to verify the applicability of the theoretical model.On this basis,path coefficient test and mediating effect test are adopted,and thus it is found that enhancing the public comprehension degree of recycled water reuse can reduce residents' risk perception of recycled water reuse and improve residents' trust in the water management sector so as to have a positive influence on their willingness to accept the reuse of recycled water,thus explaining the generating path for the guiding effect of knowledge popularization policy on residents' behavior to use recycled water.