Risk perceptions, government role, and public protective behavior in the face of environmental health hazards

• We explore the drivers of protection behavior facing environmental health hazards. • Model focuses on the risk perceptions, government role and individual-level factors. • We find significant positive effect of risk perception on adopting more protective actions. • Government role is less important for health-focused actions to reduce threats. In this study, we expand research on climate change mitigation behavior by exploring individuals’ protective actions in the face of a different and more diverse set of environmental hazards including air pollution, water and soil contamination, spillage of toxicants, polluted food and consumer products. Also, we investigate protective actions related to consumption choices (food and cleaning products) or behavioral change (staying indoors). Those actions reflect a broader range of responses of at-risk individuals who wish to reduce the health-related ramifications of pollution-type hazards. We build on Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to describe the factors that motivate individuals’ behavior. In particular, we emphasize the emergence of risk perceptions and their subsequent effects on behavior. We also account for PMT’s coping appraisal by assessing the role of the government in motivating protective actions. We use national-level data from a survey that highlights environmental health and employ both regression and structural equation modeling (SEM). The empirical analysis reveals the critical role of risk perceptions that have both a direct effect on mitigation behavior and it mediates the effects of several antecedents on protective actions. Our findings extend research on individual protective behavior to mitigate the detrimental health effects of less common hazards like air and water pollution or soil contamination and toxicants release. In particular, we offer evidence on the drivers of mitigating actions to reduce the health-specific risks from environmental hazards that are not necessarily natural and can be a result of human action.