Emotion and aversion towards timing ambiguity in the perception of environmental risks

The timing ambiguity inherent in environmental risks can greatly change people´s attitudes towards and perceptions of them. Also, emotional state of people can noticeably influence decision-makers´ judgments, be it positive or negative. The present study aims to find out how ambiguity in the timing of environmental risks and the emotional states of people affect the perception and judgment of environmental risks. Combining emotion elicitation and a special computer program based upon bisection method and the concept of willingness to pay, this study elaborately induces people´s perception of delayed environmental risks that will occur in the future. Analysis shows that people become more tolerant with environmental risks when time delay increases. By comparing the perception of environmental risks with certain timing and ambiguous timing, this study finds that people have the tendency to perceive environmental risks with ambiguous timing condition as more severe than the expected value, a display of aversion towards ambiguity. Also, we find that emotions pose an influence on timing ambiguity aversion, and this influence decreases with expected value of harm. Results from this study can well explained people´s environmental risk perception and subsequent actions, thus providing a good reference for environmental risk management and communication.