Agricultural non-point source (NPS) pollution in water source protection areas poses serious challenges for governments in developing countries. It is important to consider the environmental behavior ...of farmers when exploring the causes of NPS pollution as well as when establishing scientific controls and management measures. However, the poor understanding of factors influencing the environmental behavior of farmers and the lack of a suitable environmental socio-psychological model limit the application of the environmental behavior of farmers in NPS pollution management. In this study, we therefore integrated the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the protection motivation theory (PMT) to identify the main determinants of the NPS pollution-related environmental behavior and intention of farmers in the Water Source Area of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China. Results indicated that the integrated model provided a better understanding of the environmental behavior and intention of farmers than that provided by each component when used individually, and revealed that farmers perceived that the susceptibility and severity of threats caused by water deterioration influenced environmental intention through the mediating effects of subjective norm and attitude toward adopting pro-environmental behavior. At the same time, the perceived vulnerability of farmers was relatively high and their perceived severity was relatively low. Furthermore, the subjective norm, attitude, self-efficacy (i.e., the perceived behavioral control), and response efficacy positively and significantly influenced intention. However, response cost had a significantly negative effect on intention. Among them, subjective norm had the largest effect on intention. Intention was the key determinant for the actual environmental behavior of farmers, while self-efficacy also had a significantly positive effect on behavior. Managing and controlling agricultural NPS pollution requires a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive approach. Therefore, an integrated theoretical framework was developed in this study by integrating TPB and PMT to gain insight into the environmental behaviors and intention of farmers. The results provided a theoretical basis for NPS pollution control.
•Integrated TPB and PMT to study farmers' environmental behavior.•Subjective norm had the greatest effect on farmers' environmental intention.•Attitude and subjective norm mediate the effects of threat appraisal on intention.•Pro-environmental behavior should be facilitated through comprehensive measures.
Protection motivation theory (PMT) has become a popular theory to explain the risk‐reducing behavior of residents against natural hazards. PMT captures the two main cognitive processes that ...individuals undergo when faced with a threat, namely, threat appraisal and coping appraisal. The latter describes the evaluation of possible response measures that may reduce or avert the perceived threat. Although the coping appraisal component of PMT was found to be a better predictor of protective intentions and behavior, little is known about the factors that influence individuals’ coping appraisals of natural hazards. More insight into flood‐coping appraisals of PMT, therefore, are needed to better understand the decision‐making process of individuals and to develop effective risk communication strategies. This study presents the results of two surveys among more than 1,600 flood‐prone households in Germany and France. Five hypotheses were tested using multivariate statistics regarding factors related to flood‐coping appraisals, which were derived from the PMT framework, related literature, and the literature on social vulnerability. We found that socioeconomic characteristics alone are not sufficient to explain flood‐coping appraisals. Particularly, observational learning from the social environment, such as friends and neighbors, is positively related to flood‐coping appraisals. This suggests that social norms and networks play an important role in flood‐preparedness decisions. Providing risk and coping information can also have a positive effect. Given the strong positive influence of the social environment on flood‐coping appraisals, future research should investigate how risk communication can be enhanced by making use of the observed social norms and network effects.
Ensuring travellers' health and well-being is an important issue in tourism management and public health. By applying and testing the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), this study serves as one of ...the early attempts in tourism to explore travellers' self-protective behavior against health risks. This study conducted semi-structured interviews and an online survey. Consistent with the PMT, this study found that both threat and coping appraisals can enhance travellers' protection motivations, which in turn affect their actual behaviors. This study also provided interpretation of maladaptive perception in a tourism context and found its negative association with coping appraisal. Implications were provided on how to encourage travellers to protect themselves against health risks.
•One of the early attempts in tourism to fully test the Protection Motivation Theory•Expand the use of PMT to tourism risk management•Both threat and coping appraisals can enhance travellers' protection motivations.•Highlight the mediating role played by protection motivation on actual behaviors•Maladaptive perception is negatively associated with the coping appraisal.
Personally managing and protecting online privacy has become an essential part of everyday life. This research draws on the protection motivation theory (PMT) to investigate privacy protective ...behavior online. A two-wave panel study (N = 928) shows that (1) people rarely to occasionally protect their online privacy and (2) people most often delete cookies and browser history or decline cookies to protect their online privacy. In addition, (3) the perceived threat is high: People perceive the collection, usage, and sharing of personal information as a severe problem to which they are susceptible. The coping appraisal is mixed: Although people do have confidence in some protective measures, they have little confidence in their own efficacy to protect their online privacy. Moreover, privacy protective behavior is affected by perceived severity and response efficacy. These findings emphasize the relevance of the PMT in the context of privacy threats, and have important implications for regulators.
COVID-19 has generated an unprecedented level of public fear, likely impeding tourism industry recovery after the pandemic is over. This study explores what trigger the public's pandemic ‘travel ...fear’ and how people impose self-protection, coping and resilience related to travel. The study integrates theories including protection motivation theory, coping and resilience theories to address the research aim. Using a quota sampling, an online survey of 1208 respondents across mainland China was conducted. Results found that threat severity and susceptibility can cause ‘travel fear’, which leads to protection motivation and protective travel behaviors after the pandemic outbreak. Findings also revealed that ‘travel fear’ can evoke different coping strategies, which increases people's psychological resilience and adoption of cautious travel behaviors. Several strategies are provided on how to mitigate people's ‘travel fear’ and encourage travel in a post-COVID-19 world.
•The antecedents and behavioral consequences of individuals' pandemic ‘travel fear’.•How people impose self-protection, coping and resilience toward post-pandemic travel.•‘Travel fear’ evokes coping strategies and increases psychological resilience.•Emotional factors affecting protection motivation and post-pandemic behaviors.
Cyber fraud cases have been on the rise globally, with Malaysia experiencing a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlights the need for increased awareness among consumers. The use of ...e-services by fraudsters presents an ever-increasing challenge as it becomes harder to detect such activities, with victims suffering various losses, such as financial, psychological, and trust-related. This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence the intention of e-services users to protect themselves against cyber fraud using the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and Structural Equation Modelling. The results show that cybersecurity efficacy, source credibility, and response efficacy positively influence protection behaviour, while perceived vulnerability does not. The study's contribution is the operationalization of the cybersecurity efficacy construct into two components: knowledge and skills.
•In developing countries, higher education institutions (HEI) are vulnerable but the least protected.•Accidental leakage of information in HEIs has caused numerous financial and reputational ...losses.•HEI governance needs reforms to deal with information security breaches.•Protection motivation encourages positive and compliant behavior.•The cultivated motivation shapes HEI employees’ security compliance behavior.
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are progressively computerized to deal with substantial academic and operational information. With the increase in enriched information systems (IS) comes the potential hazard of malicious exposure to internal and external threats. This academic sector is advancing in the implementation of technical security controls; however, behavioral influence is still a challenge in the information security domain. Information security policies (ISPs) are generally designed and developed to control employees’ working behavior, yet compliance with these documents is near to non-existent. This research paper describes an empirical test of the influence of institutional governance (IG) on protection motivation and planned behavior of employees in HEIs. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. Our findings confirm the significant contribution of IG in motivating protection behavior among employees of HEIs. This cultivated motivation encourages positive conduct in information security policy compliance (ISPC).
Seasonal influenza vaccination rates are below the recommended targets, contributing to significant preventable harms. Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), a widely applied model of motivation to ...respond to threats, may provide some insights into strategies to increase the rate of vaccine uptake. Yet, previous research has omitted some of the proposed predictors of intention when applying this model to vaccination.
The aim of the study is to assess the utility of the PMT in predicting intention to obtain the seasonal influenza vaccine. This study will be the first to examine the role of all six PMT constructs in predicting intention to receive the seasonal influenza vaccine.
A cross-sectional study of 547 US residents was conducted using Amazon MTurk.
All constructs show significant bivariate correlations in the direction expected from the prior literature. Further examination of the theory within a linear regression model, however, found that perceived costs of vaccinating (i.e., response costs) did not uniquely account for variance in intention. All other components, perceived severity of and susceptibility to influenza, the perceived benefits of not vaccinating (i.e., maladaptive response rewards), the self-efficacy to vaccinate, and the perceived efficacy of vaccinating in preventing influenza (i.e., response efficacy) were unique predictors of intention. Overall, the PMT accounted for 62% of the variance in intention to vaccinate.
The study is the first to investigate influenza vaccination using all six theorised predictors of intention from the PMT. The findings highlight the importance of the simultaneous inclusion of all components of the model in assessing their potential utility as targets for intervention. Importantly, the results identify under-utilised constructs in the promotion of vaccine uptake, such as maladaptive response rewards, which should be considered targets for future intervention.
•We examine intention to receive a seasonal flu vaccination among US adults.•Protection motivation theory constructs accounted for 62% of variance in intention.•Response efficacy is the strongest predictor of intention to vaccinate.•Response costs are not a predictor of intention to receive an influenza vaccination.•Studies should consider maladaptive response rewards involved with not vaccinating.
Protection motivation theory states individuals conduct threat and coping appraisals when deciding how to respond to perceived risks. However, that model does not adequately explain today's risk ...culture, where engaging in recommended behaviors may create a separate set of real or perceived secondary risks. We argue for and then demonstrate the need for a new model accounting for a secondary threat appraisal, which we call secondary risk theory. In an online experiment, 1,246 participants indicated their intention to take a vaccine after reading about the likelihood and severity of side effects. We manipulated likelihood and severity in a 2 × 2 between‐subjects design and examined how well secondary risk theory predicts vaccination intention compared to protection motivation theory. Protection motivation theory performed better when the likelihood and severity of side effects were both low (R2 = 0.30) versus high (R2 = 0.15). In contrast, secondary risk theory performed similarly when the likelihood and severity of side effects were both low (R2 = 0.42) or high (R2 = 0.45). But the latter figure is a large improvement over protection motivation theory, suggesting the usefulness of secondary risk theory when individuals perceive a high secondary threat.
In the era of data-driven communication, managing one’s online privacy is a necessary, yet burdensome challenge. While individuals have concerns about firms’ data collection practices, they sometimes ...appear to disclose personal information for relatively small rewards. We demonstrate that privacy cynicism—an attitude toward privacy protection characterized by frustration, hopelessness, and disillusionment—explains this paradox by moderating the relationship between the appraisal of privacy threats and privacy coping behaviors on one side, and privacy protection behaviors on the other side. Results of a U.S. national survey (N = 993) show that privacy cynicism is negatively related to privacy protection behaviors and significantly moderates relationships of perceived vulnerability, response efficacy, disclosure benefits, and response costs on protection behaviors. Hence, this work has important implications for communication theory by extending existing models of privacy management behaviors, as well as for communication practice, by stressing the importance of creating awareness about privacy cynicism.
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