The Impact of WeChat Usage on Environmental Awareness: A Study of Chinese Citizens
This study investigates the relationship between social media usage, specifically WeChat, and environmental awareness among Chinese citizens. Leveraging data from the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), a nationally representative survey employing a multi-stage stratified random sampling methodology, the research explores whether increased engagement with WeChat correlates with heightened environmental consciousness. The 2018 CGSS data is uniquely suited for this analysis as it includes specific questions about social media use and environmental attitudes, unlike previous years. After accounting for missing data, the study includes 3,697 participants, offering a robust sample size for detailed analysis. The CGSS, known for its meticulous data collection and quality control procedures, provides a rich dataset for understanding societal trends in China. Interested readers can access more information about the CGSS methodology and sample representativeness on the official CGSS website.
The study defines environmental awareness as an individual’s willingness to make economic sacrifices for environmental protection. This was measured through a five-point Likert scale question in the CGSS. WeChat usage frequency, the primary independent variable, is proxied by the number of WeChat friends. Individuals with more than 30 friends are classified as frequent users, while those with 30 or fewer are considered infrequent users. To provide a comprehensive understanding of environmental perspectives, the study also incorporates measures of environmental knowledge and environmental risk perception. Environmental knowledge was assessed using a three-item scale relating energy use to smog, the greenhouse effect, and acid rain. Environmental risk perception was measured by asking participants to evaluate the air quality in their area.
To control for potential confounding factors, the study includes a range of demographic and socioeconomic variables. These include gender, age, education, marital status, health status, social interaction frequency, household registration (rural vs. urban), party membership (Communist Party of China), and annual income. These controls are crucial as they are known to influence both social media usage and environmental attitudes. For example, younger individuals and those with higher education levels tend to use social media more frequently, while income and health status can influence access to environmental information and engagement with environmental issues. These variables are coded appropriately for statistical analysis, with binary variables for gender, household registration, party membership, and marital status, and ordinal or continuous scales for other variables.
A key challenge in this type of research is the potential for endogeneity – the possibility that WeChat usage and environmental awareness influence each other reciprocally, making it difficult to establish a causal relationship. To address this, the study utilizes provincial internet penetration rate as an instrumental variable. This variable is chosen because it strongly correlates with WeChat usage frequency – greater internet access facilitates greater WeChat use – but is unlikely to directly impact individual environmental awareness independently. While economic and social factors might influence both internet penetration and environmental awareness, the study argues that the unique characteristics of China’s mobile internet development, primarily driven by government investment and influenced by geographical factors rather than solely economic ones, mitigate this concern.
Furthermore, the study acknowledges the potential for omitted variable bias and controls for key socioeconomic factors like individual income and education level, further strengthening the validity of the instrumental variable. The reasoning is that mobile internet coverage, driven by base station construction, is influenced by geographical factors and government policy, providing a degree of exogeneity relative to individual environmental awareness. The inclusion of other control variables further refines this approach, minimizing the potential for spurious correlations. This careful selection and justification of the instrumental variable are crucial for the robustness of the study’s findings.
Given the potential for endogeneity, selection bias (where individuals self-select into different levels of WeChat usage based on unobserved factors), and heterogeneity in the treatment effect (the impact of WeChat usage might vary across individuals), the study employs the marginal treatment effects (MTE) framework. This framework offers a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between WeChat usage and environmental awareness compared to traditional instrumental variable methods. MTE allows for the estimation of heterogeneous treatment effects, accounting for both observable and unobservable factors that influence individual choices and outcomes. By examining the MTE, the study can identify how the impact of WeChat usage varies across individuals with different propensities to use the platform.
The MTE framework is based on a generalized Roy model, which comprises an outcome equation (modeling environmental awareness), a selection equation (modeling the decision to use WeChat frequently), and observed outcomes (the actual environmental awareness level depending on WeChat usage). The model incorporates both observable factors (like demographics) and unobservable factors (like individual preferences) that influence both WeChat usage and environmental awareness. The MTE is then derived from this model by examining how the expected outcome changes with the propensity to use WeChat. This allows the researchers to isolate the impact of WeChat usage on individuals at the margin – those who are just indifferent between using WeChat frequently and infrequently.
The study utilizes the Local Instrumental Variable (LIV) method to estimate the MTE. LIV is a flexible and robust semi-parametric method commonly used in similar research contexts. It provides a practical way to estimate the MTE without imposing restrictive assumptions on the distribution of the error terms. By comparing the estimated MTE with other treatment effect parameters like the average treatment effect (ATE), average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), and average treatment effect on the untreated (ATU), the study provides a comprehensive picture of the relationship between WeChat usage and environmental awareness across different segments of the population. This comprehensive analytical approach allows for a more nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between social media engagement and environmental consciousness.
In conclusion, this study utilizes a robust methodological framework, combining a nationally representative dataset with advanced statistical techniques, to investigate the complex interplay between WeChat usage and environmental awareness in China. By employing the MTE framework and controlling for a wide range of potential confounding variables, the study aims to isolate the causal effect of increased WeChat engagement on environmental consciousness. The findings of this study could provide valuable insights for policymakers and environmental organizations seeking to leverage social media platforms for promoting pro-environmental behaviors. The study’s meticulous approach, including the careful selection and justification of the instrumental variable and the detailed explanation of the MTE framework, strengthens the credibility of its findings and contributes significantly to the existing literature on the intersection of social media and environmentalism.
