How does COVID-19 emergency cognition influence public pro-environmental behavioral intentions? An affective event perspective

Abstract Social impacts and serious damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in public introspection on the issue of ecological environmental protection. However, whether the public cognition of COVID-19 can promote pro-environmental behavioral intentions (PEBI) has not yet been determined; this is crucial for studying the ecological significance of the pandemic. Based on the affective events theory (AET), this study investigated the mechanism by which COVID-19 emergency cognition influences public PEBI. Following an analysis of 873 public questionnaires, the results reveal that public cognition of COVID-19 emergency can significantly promote PEBI. Among them, the effect of emergency coping is stronger than that of emergency relevance. Besides, the positive and negative environmental affective reactions aroused by COVID-19 pandemic play a mediating role between the emergency cognition and PEBI. Moreover, the positive environmental affective reactions show a stronger positive effect on household-sphere PEBI. However, the negative environmental affective reactions are more prominent in promoting public-sphere PEBI. This research aims to bridge a research gap by establishing a link between COVID-19 pandemic and PEBI. The findings can provide useful recommendations for policymakers to find the opportunity behind the COVID-19 emergency to promote public PEBI.