Exploring Factors Affecting on Willingness to Observe Air Pollution Reduction Policies in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

One of the most important issues of these days is an environmental pollution. Environmental problems such as air pollution and climate changes in urban areas are the results of human behavior. Only change in human behavior can reduce these environmental problems. Thus, studying attitude and behavior of people is a precondition to change this situation. This study aimed to examine relationships between personal factors, attitude, knowledge and people's environmental behavior. This research has been carried out in the social marketing framework and focused on air pollution reduction policies in Tehran. The method of collecting research data was a questionnaire. Questionnaires were distributed randomly among Tehran citizens and data were analyzed by SPSS software, factor analysis and linear regression analysis. It is emerged from the present study that marital status, having alive grandparents, education, gender, family member with the specific disease, the way of spending free time (inside or outside), traveling abroad, occupational status, having regular exercise programs as well as two variables of attitude and awareness of air pollution consequences, were identified as the most effective factors on willingness to observe air pollution reduction policies. Results of this study showed that citizens' priority to implement air pollution policies is paying city tax. This research also suggested that air pollution policies need to be addressed more rigorously for the targeted population. All these together can influence on people's behavior to reduce air pollution.