Environmental pressure and perceived costs and benefits of residents’ low-carbon behavior

Effectively guiding residents towards low-carbon behavior is an important way to reduce carbon emissions, mitigate climate change and achieve sustainable social development. We developed a dual mediator model of environmental pressure on low-carbon behavior based on Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory. The structural equation modelling analysis method was used to conduct an empirical test with 1557 questionnaires of urban residents from Beijing and Shanghai. The results indicate that: (1) environmental pollution intensity and social pressure intensity had a significant effect on residents’ low-carbon behavior. Social pressure was more likely to result in low-carbon behavior. (2) Perceived benefits were conducive to low-carbon behavior, whereas perceived costs inhibited low-carbon behavior. Social pressure intensity influenced low-carbon behavior by significantly acting on perceived benefits and costs, whereas environmental pollution intensity only contributed to low-carbon behavior by significantly reducing perceived costs. (3) Multi-group analysis gender, age, household size, and city of residence had significant moderating effects on the influence of environmental pollution intensity on low-carbon behavior. To promote residents’ low-carbon behavior, society should increase the dissemination of information on green, frugal, and low-carbon concepts to increase social pressure. And incentive measures should be taken to promote residents’ low-carbon behavior by relating them to interests. The results of the study are important for promoting residents’ low-carbon behavior from the perspective of social pressure and understanding the psychological changes in residents’ low-carbon behavior.