Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Internet use and the satisfaction with governmental environmental

protection: Evidence from China
Jiaping Zhang a, Mingwang Cheng a, *, Xinyu Wei a, Xiaomei Gong b, Shuai Zhang c
a
School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
b
College of Economics and Trade, Hunan University of Commerce, Changsha, 410205, China
c
College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection is of great significance to environ-
Received 27 July 2018 mental governance by the Chinese government. However, the impact of internet use on resident satis-
Received in revised form faction with governmental environmental protection is complex, and the relevant empirical evidence is
4 October 2018
far from sufficient. Based on data from the Chinese Social Survey for 2013 and using OLS and ordered
Accepted 10 December 2018
Available online 10 December 2018
probit regressions, this study finds a significant negative relationship between internet use and resident
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. Further study suggests that an increase in
different online content frequencies could reduce resident satisfaction with governmental environmental
Keywords:
Internet use
protection. Nevertheless, residents who are conservative or skeptical about internet information are
Environmental protection more satisfied with the government's environmental protection. The conclusions of this study are
Satisfaction consistent with the "negativity bias" theory, indicating that netizens focus greater attention on negative
Negativity bias news related to environmental protection. Finally, this paper performs two analyses to ensure the
China robustness of the research results. First, considering the possible "self-selection" problem, this paper
conducts a robustness test using the method of propensity score matching (PSM) and finds that the
results are still consistent. Second, the sample is subdivided to analyse the regional differences in the
impacts of internet use on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. The results
show that internet use has a significant negative influence on resident satisfaction with governmental
environmental protection in eastern China, central China but has no significant effect in western China. In
addition, the impact of internet use on urban resident satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection is significantly greater than that of rural resident.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction exceeded 31 million views.1 This documentary, which reflects

Do netizens pay greater attention to negative information? On
February 28th, 2015, a documentary on a Chinese public welfare
investigation of air pollution/smog titled “Under the Dome” began
to spread on the internet. In less than a day, this programme was
widely distributed on the internet and became a hot topic on social
media. As of midnight on March 1st, 2015, media observation had
collected data from mainstream video websites such as Youku and
Tencent video, and the click rate for the video in this survey
* Corresponding author. School of Economics and Management, Tongji Univer-
sity, Building A, Tongji building, no. 1500 Siping Road, Shanghai, China.
1
E-mail address: walkercheng@163.com (M. Cheng).
For instance, please visit: http://www.techweb.com.cn/internet/2015-03-02/
2127733.shtml (Accessed 18.09.2018).
China's smog problem, includes a large amount of real and negative
data on Chinese environmental pollution as well as the negative
actions of government departments. Obviously, this documentary
was a great success that has pushed the Chinese public to demand
better environmental protection. From another perspective, nega-
tive news related to environmental pollution has successfully
caught the attention of Chinese netizens and has become an
important force in influencing the Chinese government's efforts to
strengthen environmental protection.
Does internet use affect resident satisfaction with governmental
environmental protection? The existing literature does not supply a
direct answer to this question. However, according to previous
relevant theoretical studies, two main opposing studies of “nega-
tivity bias” theory and “media mobilization” theory are available.
Negativity bias theory emphasizes that negative news is more

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.100
0959-6526/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1026 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035
attractive to people than positive news (Gollan et al., 2015).
Moreover, negative news also has a stronger and more lasting
impact on people than positive news (Goldsmith and Dhar, 2013;
Dai et al., 2016). Therefore, netizens might often browse negative
news related to environmental pollution, thus affecting their
objective recognition of the government's environmental protec-
tion behaviour and reducing their satisfaction level with environ-
mental protection efforts. Media mobilization theory postulates
that development of information technology such as the internet
promotes the government transparency and improves the rela-
tionship between citizens and the government (Gan et al., 2017;
Stockemer, 2018). What is the impact of internet use on resident
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection in the
specific context of China? Does negativity bias dominate or is the
media mobilization effect more powerful? Study of this issue is of
great significance in both theory and practice and is reflected in the
following two aspects.
First, strengthening of environmental protection has become an
important task for the Chinese government and a current urgent
need for Chinese residents. Since 1978, China's economy has
developed at a high rate of over 9% each year, and its industriali-
zation, urbanization and modernization have been greatly
improved (Zhang et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2018). China is widely
considered as an important driver of global economic growth (Zhao
and Tang, 2018). However, for a long time, China's economic growth
has been highly dependent on a model of high resource investment,
high consumption and high pollution, which produces large
amounts of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and other pollutant
emissions (Yuan et al., 2010; Chen, 2015; Long et al., 2015; Li and
Lin, 2017; Wu et al., 2018). China has become the world's largest
carbon emitter, contributing nearly a quarter of the world's total
carbon emissions (Ma et al., 2017; Riti et al., 2017). According to the
“Environmental Performance Index: 2016 report” released by Yale
University, China ranks 109th out of 180 countries.2 The increas-
ingly serious environmental problems have aroused great concern
from the Chinese government (He and Liu, 2018; Zhang et al., 2018;
Huang, 2018). In the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National
Congress, the Chinese government noted that as always, China
adheres to the basic state policy of conserving resources and pro-
tecting the environment, threats the ecological environment as
treating life, implements the strictest environmental protection
system, and supports a green development pattern and lifestyle to
build a “beautiful China".3 In practice, the performance appraisal of
local governments by the central government has also changed the
traditional “GDP only” model and selected environmental man-
agement and protection as an important index to evaluate the work
quality of the local governments by adopting a green development
strategy (Ji et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2018; Yuan and Xiang, 2018;
Zhan et al., 2018).
Second, citizen satisfaction with the Chinese governmental
environmental protection is of great significance to the govern-
ment's future public management, and the internet has become
one of the most important ways for Chinese residents to participate
in social governance. In modern society, the importance of pro-
moting public participation and enhancing public trust, satisfaction
and identity in social management has been increasingly recog-
nized (Sun and Wang, 2012; Grimmelikhuijsen and Welch, 2012;
Hong, 2014; Yang and Ott, 2016; Xie et al., 2017). Satisfaction
with and political support for government work is considered an
2
https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/sites/default/files/Yale%20EPI%202016_
Report_0.pdf (Accessed 10.08.2018).
3
http://www.guancha.cn/politics/2017_10_27_432557.shtml
03.10.2018).
essential component of social capital and is also closely linked to
economic growth and reduction in social friction and risk (Dahl,
1956; Arrow, 1972; Zak and Knack, 2001; Uslaner, 2002; Arneil,
2006; Wilkes, 2015; Huang and Gao, 2018). Over the past 20
years, advances in information and communications technology
(ICT) have driven the rapid development and application of the
internet, which has had a profound impact on the global economy,
politics, democracy and culture. Increasing attention has been
focused on the importance of internet use in increasing govern-
ment transparency and improving relations between the govern-
ment and its citizens (Hong, 2013; Dong et al., 2017; Ye et al., 2017;
Chao et al., 2017; Stockemer, 2018). Currently, e-government is
viewed by many countries as an important measure for promoting
social democracy and improving the efficiency of government
services (Padmapriya, 2013; Gao and Lee, 2017; Verkijika and Wet,
2018). However, the relevant empirical studies are far from suffi-
cient. Since China entered the 21st century, internet technology has
rapidly developed and been widely applied. By the end of 2016,
China had 733.125 million internet users, and the internet pene-
tration rate had reached 53.2%,4 making China the largest group of
internet users in the world. Online platforms and applications such
as Microblog, WeChat and QQ have become highly important
channels for netizens to participate in social governance discus-
sions. Considering that internet use has produced such obvious
effect on the development of Chinese society, research on the in-
fluence of internet use on satisfaction with governmental envi-
ronmental protection has important practical significance.
However, previous studies have not focused on this point (to the
best of our knowledge), especially with respect to the lack of
relevant empirical research based on micro-individual data.
Therefore, the main purpose of the current paper is to investi-
gate the question of how internet use affects resident satisfaction
with governmental environmental protection in China. To answer
this question scientifically, data from the Chinese Social Survey for
2013 and econometric methods are used to further analyse the
relationship between internet use and resident satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection. Compared with the
existing literature, the main outstanding contributions of this paper
are listed as follows: First, this paper is the first study (to the best of
the authors' knowledge) of the impact of internet use on satisfac-
tion with governmental environmental protection. China has
implemented a sustainable development strategy of protecting the
environment in recent years. Additionally, with further develop-
ment of China's economy, the number of internet users is expected
to increase continually, and the attitudes of netizens towards
governmental environmental protection are of great significance to
future government work. Second, this paper also investigates the
impact of different online content frequencies and attitudes of
residents towards internet use on satisfaction with governmental
environmental protection. Third, this study fully considers possible
endogenous problems caused by sample “self-selection bias” and
consequently adopts the method of propensity score matching
(PSM) to re-estimate the impact of internet use on satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection, finding that the main
conclusions remain consistent. Finally, China is a typical large
country, and this study also fully considers possible regional dif-
ferences in the impact of internet use on resident satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection. The research sample is
divided into three subregions of eastern China, central China and
western China and also divided into urban residents and rural
residents. This segmentation of samples can aid in better
(Accessed
4
http://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn¼E0103 (Accessed 03.09.2018).
 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035
understanding the impact of internet use on Chinese resident
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2
reviews the existing relevant literature. Section 3 presents the
econometric model and data description. Section 4 discusses the
empirical results and relevant interpretation. Finally, Section 5
summarizes the conclusions and presents policy suggestions.
2. Literature review
Public satisfaction with the government is an important reflec-
tion of the quality and efficiency of government work. It is widely
believed that the public's low satisfaction with the government has
a negative impact on the implementation of public policy (Murphy,
2004; Porumbescu, 2016). As an important carrier of information,
the influence of media on satisfaction with government work has
become a topic of high concern by many scholars (Searson and
Johnson, 2010; Hong, 2013). However, no unified conclusion has
been presented on the effect of media on satisfaction with gov-
ernment work. The following theories are relevant to under-
standing how internet use affects citizen satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection.
2.1. Negativity bias theory
To obtain greater attention and click-through rates, online
media outlets tend to report more sensational political events and
negative news, such as government corruption scandals, resulting
in a decrease in public satisfaction with the work of the govern-
ment (Robinson, 1979). Garz (2014) found that the media focuses
greater attention on negative unemployment reports than on
positive reports. The government has a strong voice and strong
control over traditional media such as TV stations and newspa-
pers. However, the development of the internet has “privatized”
the mass media, making it more “diversified” and “fragmented”
(Ma and Dedeo, 2018; Bahri et al., 2018; Margaris et al., 2018).
Moreover, internet users are more inclined to read quickly and
seek to obtain information in the shortest possible time. There-
fore, many website editors choose a greater proportion of nega-
tive news to boost click volume because a growing body of
research has generally found that negative news or events stim-
ulates emotion and cognition and attracts attention (Taylor, 1991;
Carretie
et al., 2001; Baumeister, 2001; Smith et al., 2003; Hilbig,
2009). This phenomenon is also known as “negativity bias”
(Hansen and Hansen, 1988; Ohman et al., 2001; Huang and Luo,
2006; Suzuki and Suga, 2010; Baltazar et al., 2012). Studies
found that negative messages have a greater impact on the brain's
emotional processing than positive and neutral messages (Ito
et al., 1998) and stimulates people more consistently than posi-
tive information (Hajcak and Olvet, 2008).
Why do people tend to pay greater attention to negative news or
events? According to evolutionary theory, over a long period of
time, people have developed the skills and ability to respond
quickly to danger. Therefore, netizens inevitably pay greater
attention to reports of negative information because negative in-
formation represents danger, evidencing a natural adaption to the
environment for identification and avoidance of potential dangers
(Rozin and Royzman, 2001; Zhang et al., 2018). Kensinger (2007)
argued that negativity bias is an evolutionary adaptation mecha-
nism intended to protect individuals from harm. In addition, this
negativity bias is apparent even in infancy (Carver and Vaccaro,
2007; Vaish et al., 2008; Kinzler and Shutts, 2008; Peltola et al.,
2015). Baltazar et al. (2012) found deep memories of threatening
social behaviour in children in three experimental investigations.
Hamlin et al. (2010) found that even three-month-old children
1027
show a clear negativity bias in social behaviour assessment.
Selected studies suggest that young people have a higher negativity
bias than older people (Carstensen and Deliema, 2018) because
older people have more complex emotions and are better able to
integrate emotions and cognition and use emotional regulation
strategies (Carstensen et al., 2000; Ohman et al., 2001). Other
scholars such as Walker and Blaine (1991), Eriksson and Coultas
(2014), Fessler et al. (2014) and Bebbington et al. (2017) have also
found that people are more motivated to pay attention to negative
information than positive information in social information
transmission.
A negative news report exerts a higher emotional arousal on
the audience, which can lead to deviation of subjective judgement
(Johnson and Tversky, 1983). Numerous studies have shown a
strong link between negativity bias and depression, anxiety and a
negative view of the world and the future (Koster et al., 2005;
Beck, 2008; Krompinger and Simons, 2009; Wu et al., 2017). Ac-
cording to the theory of hopelessness, in a negative cognitive
environment, people make more negative judgements in the face
of negative events and overestimate the frequency of negative
events (Beck, 1987; Abramson et al., 1989; Shook et al., 2007).
Negativity bias is also widely regarded as an important explana-
tion of differences in political ideology (Hibbing et al., 2014;
Lilienfeld et al., 2014). Therefore, according to negativity bias
theory, internet use might reduce resident satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection because netizens might
more readily focus on negative news related to environmental
pollution.
2.2. Media mobilization theory
In contrast to the perspective of negativity bias theory, the
media mobilization theory states that internet use can increase
information transparency, enhance the public interest in partici-
pating in political affairs, and consequently increase political trust
(Baek, 2015; Chen et al., 2015; Gan et al., 2017). Diamond (2010)
and Saleh (2012) described the internet as a “liberation technol-
ogy” for emerging civil society. To support this theory, scholars
conducted a body of related research. The relevant studies are
mainly conducted based on two categories. The first category of
study is the impact of internet use on government transparency.
For example, many scholars have found that the development of
social media has a negative relationship with corruption (Vinod,
1999; Goela and Naretta, 2012; Elbahnasawy, 2014; Jha and
Sarangi, 2017; Kanyam et al., 2017; Ali and Gasmi, 2017).
Stockemer (2018) highlighted the positive role of internet use in
improving election transparency. The second category mainly
focuses on the impact of internet use on relations between citi-
zens and their governments and the positive effects of e-gov-
ernment. Hong (2013) found that the online experience of
government websites could significantly increase citizen trust in
the government. Chen et al. (2016) found that mobile government
improves the impartiality of government office procedures, which
in turn increases user satisfaction.
As shown above, negativity bias theory and media mobilization
theory derive opposite relationships between internet use and
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. There-
fore, this paper uses econometric methods to accurately study the
relationship between internet use and satisfaction with govern-
mental environmental protection based on China's micro-survey
data. More specifically, this study attempts to analyse whether
the impact of internet use on resident satisfaction with govern-
mental environmental protection is reflected by the negativity bias
effect or the media mobilization effect in the specific context of
China.
1028 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035
3. Research methods and data
3.1. Data source
The data used in this paper are taken from the Chinese Social
Survey for 2013 (CSS2013), which was conducted by the Institute of
Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The CSS is a
large-scale nationwide continuous sampling survey project
launched in 2005 and is a biennial survey of more than 7000 to
10000 households using probability sampling. The CSS2013
collected 10206 completed questionnaires covering 30 provinces
and municipalities in China (excluding Xinjiang), with respondents
ranging from 18 to 72 years old, including 5641 female respondents
and 4565 male respondents. Therefore, the samples are satisfac-
torily representative.
3.2. Model specification and variable selection
To analyse the influence of internet use on resident satisfaction
with governmental environmental protection, the following
regression model is constructed:
X
N negativity bias intensifies the residents' negative perception of
satisfactioni ¼ a0 þ b1 interneti þ bj X þ provincei þ εi
j¼2
where i represents the ith resident, satisfactioni is the dependent
variable representing the satisfaction with governmental environ-
mental protection for the ith resident, interneti is the core explan-
atory variable representing internet use for the ith resident, and εi
represents the error term, which is independent and identically
distributed. The variable provincei indexes the provincial effects,
and X represents a series of control variables that might affect
resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection.
All of the above variables are set as follows.
3.2.1. Satisfaction with governmental environmental protection
CSS2013 obtained information on resident satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection using the following
questions: Do you think the local government has done a good job
in protecting the environment and controlling pollution? The in-
terviewees replied “terrible”, “bad”, “good” or “excellent”, assigned
a value of 1e4, respectively. Therefore, a higher score indicates
higher resident satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection.
3.2.2. Internet use
All participants were asked if they used the internet at ordinary
times. The respondents answered that they used the internet (value
of 1) or that they did not use the internet (value of 0).
3.2.3. Control variables
The control variables included two main categories. The first
category included variables reflecting the environmental quality
according to the subjective feelings of the residents. This paper
used four indicators to measure the quality of the environment:
noise pollution, air quality, water quality and environmental sani-
tation quality. Data for the above four indicators were obtained by
asking questions related to noise pollution, air pollution, water
pollution and daily environmental sanitation in the respondents'
current area of residence. The respondents answered “serious”,
“generally serious”, “not too serious”, or “not a problem”, assigned a
value of 1e4, respectively. The second category covers the personal
characteristics of the participants, including gender, age, political
identity, marital status and income level.
In this paper, missing values of all variables were eliminated,
and the samples that answered relevant questions with “unclear”
and “difficult to say” were also excluded. Finally, 8081 samples
were obtained, including 5588 non-netizens and 2493 netizens.
The definitions and descriptive statistics of major variables are
shown in Table 1.
As shown in Table 1, the average level of Chinese resident
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection is
between 2 and 3, indicating that Chinese residents have a
strong expectation that the government will strengthen envi-
ronmental protection. In addition, the average level of netizen
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection was
0.2574 lower than that of non-netizens. Based on the statistical
results alone, there appears to be a negative correlation be-
tween internet use and resident satisfaction with governmental
environmental protection, suggesting that the impact of nega-
tivity bias might be dominant among Chinese netizens based
on their satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection.
In terms of the meaning of other variables between netizens
and non-netizens, the subjective evaluation of netizens’ envi-
ronment qualities is also relatively lower. A possible reason is that
(1) the quality of their living environment. Compared with non-
netizens, netizens are relatively younger, with more men and
more party members and higher income levels. Surprisingly, more
netizens are unmarried, divorced or widowed than non-netizens.
It could be possible that people with marital problems are more
likely to look for emotional support online or to seek out new
mates.
3.3. Distribution characteristics of internet use and satisfaction
with governmental environmental protection
Fig. 1 shows the columnar distribution of the satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection for netizens and non-
netizens. It can be clearly observed that netizens answered
“good” and “excellent” less often than non-netizens. In contrast, the
percentage of non-netizens who answered “terrible” and “bad” are
significantly lower than that of those who used the internet.
According to CSS2013, this paper calculated the average internet
use rate and resident satisfaction with governmental environ-
mental protection for various provinces in China.5 Fig. 2 shows the
scatter plot and fitting curve for internet use and resident satis-
faction with governmental environmental protection at the pro-
vincial level. It can be observed that a significant negative
relationship still exists between them, which is consistent with the
above statistical results.
In summary, the above comparison appears to show a negative
relationship between internet use and resident satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection. However, because the
above analyses do not consider the impact of other variables on
resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection,
the analysis results might not reflect the real relationship between
internet use and resident satisfaction with governmental environ-
mental protection. Therefore, this paper applies econometric
methods to further examine the relationship between internet use
and resident satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection.
5
Currently, China has 22 provinces, four municipalities, two special adminis-
trative regions (Hong Kong and Macau), five ethnic autonomous regions, and
Taiwan, which are all equal in administration. Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and
Xinjiang were not included in CSS2013.
 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035 1029

Table 1
Definition and descriptive statistics of variables.

The dependent variable Definition Not using the internet Using the internet Mean diff
(N ¼ 5588) (N ¼ 2493)

Mean Mean

Satisfaction Satisfaction with the governmental environmental protection (1 2.6272 2.3698 0.2574***
e4)
Control variables
Noise pollution Serious ¼ 1, generally serious ¼ 2, not too serious ¼ 3, not a 3.1335 2.6743 0.4592***
problem ¼ 4
Air quality Serious ¼ 1, generally serious ¼ 2, not too serious ¼ 3, not a 3.0940 2.6258 0.4682***
problem ¼ 4
Water quality Serious ¼ 1, generally serious ¼ 2, not too serious ¼ 3, not a 3.0991 2.7702 0.3290***
problem ¼ 4
Environmental sanitation Serious ¼ 1, generally serious ¼ 2, not too serious ¼ 3, not a 2.9986 2.7373 0.2613***
quality problem ¼ 4
Gender Male ¼ 1; female ¼ 0 0.4483 0.5387 0.0904***
Age The actual age of participants in 2013 50.7808 35.436 15.3448***
Political identity The party members ¼ 1; else ¼ 0 0.0753 0.1761 0.1008***
Marital status Remarriage or cohabitation ¼ 1; unmarried, divorced or 0.9009 0.7481 0.1528***
widowed ¼ 0
Income level The logarithmic of per capita household income 8.9321 10.0799 1.1478***

Note: (1): *p < 0.10, **

p < 0.05, ***
p < 0.01.

individual characteristics and effect of the provinces. The results of

Fig. 1. Histogram of internet use and satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection.
4. Empirical results and discussions
4.1. Estimation method selection
Because the dependent variable in this paper is a discrete vari-
able on a scale of 1e4 and the main explanatory variables are also
discrete variables, this article uses the ordered probit method to
estimate the influence of internet use on resident satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection. However, certain scholars
have noted that no absolute advantage or disadvantage exists be-
tween the results of ordinary least squares (OLS) and ordered probit
estimation if the model is set properly (FerrereIeCarbonell and
Frijters, 2004; Angrist and Pischke, 2008). Therefore, this study
reports the results of OLS and ordered probit simultaneously for the
benchmark equation.
4.2. Basic results and discussion
Table 2 shows the empirical results of the benchmark Eq. (1) in
which columns (1)e(3) are the OLS estimation results, and columns
(4)e(6) are the ordered probit estimation results. Columns (1) and
(4) only consider the core variable internet use and the effect of the
provinces. Columns (2) and (5) consider internet use, environ-
mental quality and effect of the provinces, and columns (3) and (6)
simultaneously consider internet use, environmental quality,
OLS and ordered probit are highly consistent, and the R2 values of
columns (1)e(3) increase successively. Therefore, the model setting
is suitable.
According to the estimation results of ordered probit, column
(6) shows that the coefficient of the influence of internet use on
resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection
is 0.1108, which passes the significance level of 1%. Therefore, a
significant negative relationship exists between the internet use
and resident satisfaction with governmental environmental pro-
tection, which is consistent with the negativity bias theory.
In addition, the four dimensions of environmental quality for
noise pollution, air quality, water quality and environmental sani-
tation quality have significant positive effects on resident satisfac-
tion with governmental environmental protection. Therefore,
China's continued efforts to strengthen environmental protection
and improve the quality of health and environmental sanitation are
of great significance in enhancing government trust.
Table 3 shows the marginal impact of internet use on resident
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection via the
ordered probit model based on columns (4)e(6) in Table 2. Spe-
cifically, from the estimation results of column (3) in Table 3,
compared with residents who do not use the internet, the pro-
portion of internet users who think that the government's envi-
ronmental protection measures are “terrible” is 1.44% higher, the
proportion for “bad” is 2.34% higher, the proportion for “good” is
2.38% lower, and the proportion for “excellent” is 1.40% lower.
Based on the above analysis of the estimation results for the
benchmark model, this paper finds that in general, internet use has
a significant negative impact on Chinese residents' satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection, indicating that the nega-
tivity bias effect on Chinese netizens is more obvious. In recent
years, China's environmental problems have become increasingly
serious and have attracted extensive attention from all aspects of
Chinese society. Chinese residents are increasingly looking to the
government for greater environmental protection. With wider
application of internet technology, the internet has become closely
intertwined with the daily lives of Chinese residents. According to
the negativity bias theory, negative news related to environmental
pollution has a unique “pull” on the internet. In addition, negative
news related to environmental pollution is also deeply experienced
in daily life by many Chinese residents. As a result, internet use has
1030 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035

2
Satisfaction = 2.827 - 0.9020*Internet R = 44.3%

3
2.8
Satisfaction
2.4 2.2
2 2.6

0 .2 .4 .6
Internet
n = 30 RMSE = 0.133

Fig. 2. Scatter plot of internet use and satisfaction with governmental environmental protection at the provincial level.

Table 2
Empirical results for the benchmark model.

Variables OLS Ordered Probit

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

*** *** *** *** ***
Internet use 0.2268 0.0960 0.0654 0.3381 0.1627 0.1108***
(0.0180) (0.0170) (0.0212) (0.0268) (0.0280) (0.0351)
Noise pollution 0.0208* 0.0197* 0.0357* 0.0338*
(0.0112) (0.0112) (0.0185) (0.0185)
Air quality 0.1255*** 0.1246*** 0.2062*** 0.2045***
(0.0125) (0.0125) (0.0206) (0.0207)
Water quality 0.1222*** 0.1217*** 0.2011*** 0.2006***
(0.0110) (0.0110) (0.0182) (0.0182)
Environmental sanitation quality 0.1762*** 0.1756*** 0.2912*** 0.2905***
(0.0121) (0.0121) (0.0204) (0.0205)
Gender 0.0164 0.0252
(0.0156) (0.0260)
Age 0.0013* 0.0021*
(0.0007) (0.0011)
Political identity 0.0150 0.0176
(0.0242) (0.0399)
Marital status 0.0020 0.0044
(0.0220) (0.0367)
Income level 0.0110* 0.0192*
(0.0065) (0.0108)
Constant 2.6475*** 1.2534*** 1.3018***
(0.0353) (0.0496) (0.0861)
Provinces YES YES YES YES YES YES
R2 0.0467 0.2127 0.2136
N 8081 8081 8081 8081 8081 8081

Note.
(1): Robust standard errors in parentheses.
(2): *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.

a significant negative impact on Chinese netizens' satisfaction with
the government's environmental protection.
4.3. Relationship between different online content frequencies,
attitudes towards the internet information and the satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection
The above analysis examines whether internet use affects
residents satisfaction with governmental environmental protec-
tion. However, online behaviours and attitudes towards the
network are quite different among residents. The impact of internet
use on satisfaction with governmental environmental protection
might significantly differ in a large crowd. Many studies have
shown that excessive use of the internet has many negative effects
on both physical and mental health and that internet addiction is
also associated with depression (Kim et al., 2008; Ko et al., 2009;
 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035 1031

Table 3
Marginal effect of internet use on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection.

Satisfaction with the government's environmental protection Ordered Probit (Marginal effects)

(1) (2) (3)

*** ***
Terrible 0.0501 0.0212 0.0144***
(0.0041) (0.0037) (0.0046)
Bad 0.0797*** 0.0343*** 0.0234***
(0.0064) (0.0059) (0.0074)
Good 0.0834*** 0.0350*** 0.0238***
(0.0065) (0.0060) (0.0075)
Excellent 0.0464*** 0.0205*** 0.0140***
(0.0039) (0.0036) (0.0044)
Environmental sanitation quality NO YES YES
Individual characteristics NO NO YES
Provinces YES YES YES

Note: (1): Robust standard errors in parentheses.

(2):*p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.

Xiuqin et al., 2010; Pawlikowski and Brand, 2011; Choi et al., 2018). culture is more diverse. Netizens might pay greater attention to
what's more, due to the diversity of internet culture, people's at- negative news on topics such as environmental pollution or nega-
titudes towards internet information might affect the degree of tive environmental protection measures by local governments,
influence of negativity bias on their satisfaction with governmental which might eventually lead to a reduction in the residents' satis-
environmental protection. Therefore, this paper further analyses faction with governmental environmental protection. At the same
the impact of residents' different online content frequencies and time, the above results further prove the impact of negativity bias
attitudes towards the internet information on their satisfaction on Chinese netizens' satisfaction with governmental environmental
with the government's environmental protection. This study uses protection from two perspectives.
the frequencies with which residents use the internet to browse
news and find information to reflect the content and frequencies of
4.4. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis
residents who surf the internet. In CSS2013, participants were
asked how often they used the internet to browse news or find
Although the benchmark model for this article was properly
information. The possible answers were “never”, “several times a
applied to control the variables that might affect resident satis-
year”, “at least once a month”, “at least once a week”, “multiple
faction with governmental environmental protection, the relevant
times a week” or “almost every day”, rated 1e6, respectively. With
empirical analysis might still encounter the problem of “self-se-
respect to the attitudes of residents towards the internet, CSS2013
lection", which can cause self-selection bias. Specifically, in this
asked participants the following questions:
study, self-selection bias refers to the possibility that the residents'
internet use behaviours are affected by other factors, which might
(1) Do you agree that the information on the internet is not as
also affect satisfaction with the government's environmental pro-
authentic as that on TV, radio, or newspapers?
tection. For example, income levels are closely related to residents'
(2) Do you agree that internet users are only a small portion of
internet use, but income level might also be related to residents'
the general public and that their opinions cannot represent
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. Because
all people?
people with high income levels might make higher demands for
environmental quality, they could have high expectations for
The respondents said they strongly disagree, disagree, agree or
governmental environmental protection measures.
strongly agree, assigned values of 1e4, respectively, and the sam-
Therefore, to minimize self-selection bias caused by internet
ples with the answer “not good to say” or missing values were
use, this study uses the propensity score matching (PSM) method to
excluded. Similarly, this study applied ordered probit to estimate
investigate the impact of internet use on resident satisfaction with
the impact of residents' different online content frequencies and
governmental environmental protection. This paper applies four
attitudes towards internet information on their satisfaction with
matching methods, namely, radius matching, kernel matching,
the government's environmental protection. The results are shown
local linear regression matching and 4-nearest neighbour match-
in Table 4.
ing. Before using PSM, the samples must pass the balance test,
As shown in Table 4, the results of columns (1) and (2) indicate
which ensures that no systematic difference exists between the
that an increase in the frequencies for browsing news and search-
treatment group and the control group after matching except for
ing information on the internet could significantly reduce resident
the key explanatory variables. Taking the balance test results of
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. This
radius matching as an example, Table 5 shows that all of the control
result further verifies the robustness of the previous conclusions.
variables have significant differences before matching, but after
However, the two variables in columns (3) and (4) that focus on
matching, all of the t values are not significant at the 10% level,
attitudes towards internet information are significantly positive,
which shows that after applying the PSM, the systematic differ-
indicating that residents who are skeptical of internet information
ences of all control variables in the two groups samples are not
are more satisfied with governmental environmental protection. In
significant, indicating that the method of PSM can pass the balance
the past, traditional media such as newspapers and television were
test. The results show that the method of PSM is similar to the
primarily controlled by the state or the government. The govern-
results of random experiments.
ment strengthened people's recognition of government actions by
Table 6 shows the average treatment effect on the treated values
relating positive representations. The development of information
(ATT) under the four PSM methods. It can be observed from the
and communication technologies such as the internet has led to
results that the ATT values obtained after the PSM methods are
privatization and fragmentation of mass media, and internet
between 0.0857 and 0.0665, which further verifies the previous
1032 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035

Table 4
Relationship between different online content frequencies, attitudes towards the internet and satisfaction with governmental environmental protection.

Variables Ordered Probit

(1) (2) (3) (4)

**
The news viewing frequency on the internet 0.0405
(0.0162)
The search information frequency on the internet 0.0271**
(0.0136)
Attitude towards internet information 0.1337***
(0.0322)
Attitude toward netizens' opinions 0.0838***
(0.0308)
Environmental quality YES YES YES YES
Individual characteristics YES YES YES YES
Provinces YES YES YES YES
N 2484 2484 2394 2434

Note: (1): Robust standard errors in parentheses.

(2): *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.

Table 5
Balance test results for radius matching.

Variable Unmatched Mean %bias %reduct t

Matched Treated Control |bias|

Noise pollution U 2.6743 3.1335 50.50 99.6 20.78***

M 2.6809 2.6829 0.20 0.07
Air quality U 2.6258 3.0940 51.50 95.8 21.11***
M 2.6337 2.6140 2.20 0.74
Water quality U 2.7702 3.0991 36.30 95.7 14.88***
M 2.7780 2.7640 1.60 0.53
Environmental sanitation quality U 2.7373 2.9986 32.40 87.3 13.33***
M 2.7394 2.7064 4.10 1.4
Gender U 0.5387 0.4483 18.20 80.8 7.54***
M 0.5378 0.5552 3.50 1.22
Age U 35.4360 50.7810 136.40 98.9 56.55***
M 35.5650 35.7350 1.50 0.54
Political identity U 0.1761 0.0753 30.70 97.3 13.72***
M 0.1679 0.1706 0.80 0.25
Marital status U 0.7481 0.9009 41.00 90.9 18.32***
M 0.7553 0.7692 3.70 1.15
Income level U 10.0800 8.9321 94.20 97.6 38.08***
M 10.0590 10.0870 2.30 0.89

Note: (1): *p < 0.10, **

p < 0.05, ***
p < 0.01.

Table 6
Results of propensity score matching.

Matching method Radius matching Kernel matching Local linear regression matching 4-nearest neighbour matching

Average effect for treatment group 0.0665* 0.0857*** 0.0805* 0.0697*

(0.0346) (0.0332) (0.0422) (0.0358)
Environmental quality YES YES YES YES
Individual characteristics YES YES YES YES
Sample number of treatment group 2493 2493 2493 2493
Sample number of Control group 5588 5588 5588 5588

Note: (1): Standard errors in parentheses.

(2): *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.

estimation results of the ordered probit analysis. In summary, after
correcting the selective bias using the PSM method, the results still
show that internet use significantly reduces resident satisfaction
with governmental environmental protection on the whole.
4.5. Internet use and resident satisfaction with governmental
environmental protection: regional differences
China is a typical large country, and the levels of economic and
social development in various regions display obvious differences.
The degrees of internet use and resident satisfaction with govern-
mental environmental protection among different provinces in
China vary markedly. Moreover, the overall income levels and hu-
man capital levels of residents in rural areas and remote areas in
western China are relatively low, and their awareness of environ-
mental protection might also be significantly different from that of
other regions. Therefore, it is necessary to further analyse regional
differences in the impact of internet use on resident satisfaction
 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035
with governmental environmental protection. The samples are
further subdivided as follows: First, the sample is divided into three
subregions: eastern China, central China and western China.6 The
results estimated by the ordered probit method are respectively
shown in column (1), column (2) and column (3) in Table 7. Second,
the samples are divided into urban residents and rural residents.
According to the type of residence of interviewees, when a partic-
ipant lives in rural areas, then the participant is treated as a rural
resident. Otherwise, the participant is deemed an urban resident.
The estimated results are shown in columns (4) and (5) in Table 7.
In terms of regional differences, the influence coefficients of
internet use on resident satisfaction with governmental environ-
mental protection are negative in eastern China, central China and
western China. However, only the results in eastern and central
China are significant. From the perspective of urban-rural differ-
ence, the influence coefficients of internet use on urban resident
and rural resident satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection are also negative and significant at 1% and 10%, respec-
tively. In addition, internet use has a greater influence on urban
resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection.
Why do such regional differences exist in the impact of internet use
on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protec-
tion in China? There are several possible explanations. First, the
internet use rates of residents in eastern China and central China
are higher than that in western China, and the internet use rate of
residents in the urban areas is also higher than that in rural areas.
Second, urban residents might be more aware of environmental
pollution because of car exhaust emissions and the density of
modern industries. As a result, urban residents are likely to pay
additional attention to negative news on the topic of environmental
pollution on the internet because of their profound experiences. In
contrast, due to low environmental pollution, the air quality in rural
areas is generally relatively good. what's more, the internet use
level of rural residents is also relatively low because of the low level
of human capital and income, Therefore, China's rural residents
might be less affected by the negative bias of internet use. As a
result, internet use has a less negative impact on resident satis-
faction with governmental environmental protection in the west-
ern regions and rural areas. In eastern China, residents are likely to
view negative news related to environmental pollution more
rationally because of their higher education levels. Additionally, in
Table 7
Results of regional differences in impact of internet use on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection.
Variables Regional differences
Eastern China Central China
(1) (2)
Internet use 0.0983* 0.1571***
(0.0551) (0.0603)
Environmental quality YES YES
Individual characteristics YES YES
Provinces YES YES
N 3206 2638
(1): Robust standard errors in parentheses.
(2): *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.
6
Eastern China has 11 provinces: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai,
Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong and Hainan. Central China has 8
provinces: Heiloingjiang, Jilin, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan.
Western China has 12 provinces: Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan,
Guizhou, Yunnan, Tiber, Shannxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. Xinjiang is
not included in the sample due to data limitations.
1033
recent years, China's eastern coastal areas have vigorously
strengthened environmental governance, and a large number of
polluting enterprises have moved out. Environmental quality has
been greatly improved, especially in Shanghai and Zhejiang.
Therefore, in general, the negative impact of internet use on resi-
dent satisfaction with governmental environmental protection in
eastern China is less than that in central China.
5. Research summary and conclusions
China is committed to promoting global sustainable develop-
ment and strict environmental protection policies. Therefore,
improving citizen satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection is of great significance in social management by the
Chinese government. In recent years, information and communi-
cation technology has driven profound changes in Chinese society.
However, previous studies have focused minimal attention on the
impact of the internet and other emerging media on resident
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. Based on
data from the Chinese Social Survey for 2013, the OLS and ordered
probit model were used to empirically analyse the relationship
between internet use and resident satisfaction with governmental
environmental protection.
The study results show that internet use significantly reduced
resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection
in China. Furthermore, this study further examined the effects of
the residents' different online content frequencies and attitudes
towards the internet on their satisfaction with government envi-
ronmental protection. The results show that the more frequently
the internet is used, the less satisfied residents are with govern-
mental environmental protection. Moreover, people who are more
conservative or skeptical with respect to internet information are
more satisfied with governmental environmental protection. To
address the possible selectivity bias caused by internet use, this
paper adopts the PSM method for the robustness test. The results
show that the main conclusions are still consistent, i.e., a significant
negative relationship exists between internet use and Chinese
residents' satisfaction with governmental environmental protec-
tion, indicating that the impact of internet use on Chinese residents'
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection is more
readily affected by negativity bias than by media mobilization.
Differences between urban and rural
residents
Western China Urban residents Rural residents
(3) (4) (5)
0.1065 0.1499*** 0.1108*
(0.0708) (0.0499) (0.0579)
YES YES YES
YES YES YES
YES YES YES
2237 5454 2626
Finally, considering that China is a typical large country, this paper
further analyses the regional differences in the impact of internet
use on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection. The research results show that internet use and resident
satisfaction with governmental environmental protection have a
significant negative relationship in eastern China, central China,
1034 J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 212 (2019) 1025e1035
urban residents and rural residents, which further verifies the
reliability of the main conclusions. Overall, the research conclu-
sions of this paper are consistent with the negativity bias theory,
indicating that Chinese netizens pay greater attention to negative
information on the internet, such as environmental pollution.
This study has important theoretical and practical implications.
First, this paper finds further evidence from China's micro-data for
the negativity bias theory. Second, China is currently promoting a
sustainable strategy for green and environmental protection, and e-
government and internet technology are viewed as important ap-
proaches for enhancing government transparency and increasing
public participation in society. However, based on the research in
this paper, the internet has also introduced challenges for China's
social governance. The internet is quite different from traditional
media such as newspapers, and internet culture is more diversified.
To obtain more viewers and clicks, negative news on the topic of
environmental pollution is often reported in the process of internet
news production. Obviously, negative news reports on environ-
mental protection have received widespread attention from Chi-
nese netizens. In addition, although no significant impact of
internet use on resident governmental environmental protection
satisfaction in western China, and the impact of internet use on
urban resident satisfaction with governmental environmental
protection is significantly greater than that of rural residents, the
coefficient between these items is still negative (as shown in
Table 7). In recent years, China has accelerated the construction of
“digital China”, and it is predicted that the internet use level of
residents in western China and rural areas will be greatly improved.
Additionally, with the transfer of relevant industries in eastern
China, the industrialization process in western China has also
accelerated and still poses many potential challenges to the envi-
ronmental quality in western China. Therefore, China's future
public policy-making should comprehensively consider the
possible impact of internet use on resident satisfaction with
governmental environmental protection in rural areas and the
western regions, especially with respect to the negativity bias ef-
fect. China must also take appropriate steps to address the chal-
lenges that internet use might pose to future environmental
protection efforts by the government. For example, the Chinese
government should further increase the education level of the
entire population because education can aid people's ability to view
negative news more rationally. Finally, the Chinese government
should also continue to strengthen environmental protection and
promote sustainable economic development, thus enhancing the
trust of Chinese residents in the government's determination to
protect the environment.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (71373179, 71673200, 71173156 and 71873095), Key
Projects of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Education
Ministry of China (15JZD026), Program for Professor of Special
Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher
Learning (TP2015023), Shanghai Universities Program of PuJiang
Talent (15PJC087), and Shanghai Universities Program of Shuguang
Scholars (15SG17).
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