Haze pollution threatens residents' health and has become an important public problem in China. With the gradual improvement of public environment consciousness, government failure in the environmental protection might stimulate individual coping behaviors. However, there is no implication about the mechanism differences within individual coping behaviors. This study aimed to understand Beijing residents' four coping behaviors against health risks of haze pollution including two behaviors of "inverted quarantine," i.e., wearing a mask when go outside (WM), purchasing air purifier (PAP), and two environmentally friendly behaviors, i.e., purchasing new energy vehicles (PNEV), making a real-time report of air pollution incidents to the government (MRR). We introduced risk perception and income into the theory of planned behavior, and used structural equation model to explore the formation mechanism of coping behaviors. The results showed that the positive effect of intention on behaviors of "inverted quarantine" is relatively higher than these environmentally friendly behaviors. Behavioral intentions are significantly affected by attitude (β WM = 0.24; β PAP = 0.37; β PNEV = 0.45; β MRR = 0.16), subjective norm (β WM = 0.46; β PAP = 0.41; β PNEV = 0.31; β MRR = 0.62) and risk perception (β WM = 0.74; β PAP = 0.73; β PNEV = 1.07; β MRR = 0.74) at 1% level. Furthermore, richer people showed higher level of coping behaviors than the poor, but showed similar or lower level of coping behavioral intentions. The conclusions would be helpful for policy makers to take effective measures to guide public behaviors and promote public participation in air pollution control.

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Particulate air pollution is a serious problem and has received extensive attention in Beijing. The public might amplify the health risks because of the visibility and frequency of haze, potentially leading to anxiety and panic. Public risk perception might affect individual behaviors and their willingness to pay for improving air quality. We used contingent valuation method and psychometric paradigm to investigate public risk perception and elicit willingness to pay for reductions in the health risk posed by fine particulate matter 2.5 smaller than 2.5 microns in width in Beijing, China. The logit model results showed that the level of fear and four characteristics of risk perception—familiarity, scope of impact, relevance to individual, and voluntariness—had significant effects on respondents’ payment decision. The ordinary least squares model results showed the level of anxiety, anger, and satisfaction about the current situation and four characteristics of risk perception—scope of impact, overall risk, duration of effects, and controllability—had significant effects on the amount of willingness to pay.

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