How Does Perceived Justice Affect Urban Environmental Policy Support?

Belief in a Just World (BJW) emphasizes the role of justice in every aspect of life, based on the belief that we, including others, get what we deserve. Globally, including in Thailand, environmental issues have become a major public concern, especially among the young generation. This study investigates how perceived justice among HEI students affects environmental policy support. The applied mixed method was a combination of online surveys and interviews. Of 223 survey participants from 4 HEIs in Bangkok, 21 participated in the interview. The survey affirms the previous study that Personal BJW is the predictor of well-being. The General BJW correlates negatively with just sustainable policy, especially the ‘Polluter Pay for Pollution’ policy. The data were analyzed with the reflexive thematic analysis approach. The core theme addressed the factors affecting attitudes towards environmental policy. Three subthemes were identified: (i) Experiences as determinants of problems significance & necessity evaluation, (ii) Knowledge as an unavoidable information in policy process communication, and (iii) Outcome assessment as the result of comparison between self-impact and public-impact. Results illustrated factors causing different attitudes towards environmental policy. These findings suggest that the level of support of any environmental policy is relevant to the social group experiences, that the policy communication process should provide knowledge and information to solve misunderstandings or myths, and that the policy framing as an integrated package could mitigate the individual impact by providing more choices and gain more support.