Information intervention, nuclear radiation fear and consumer behavior

Abstract

Information dissemination can shape people's consciousness. Information can evoke emotions or fear, which in turn affects consumers' behavior and makes them make some irrational decisions. This paper finds an ingenious experimental design to answer the question of how information intervenes to influence consumer decisions by evoking fear. After a nuclear power plant is put into operation, it can often cause a large public reaction in the local area. Although nuclear power plants themselves do not cause significant radiation hazards to human health, nuclear power plant operations can still inspire fear of nuclear radiation due to the indelible bad impression created by historical nuclear leakage accidents. Emotional changes have led patients to reduce their use of radiopharmaceuticals when choosing treatment options. This paper demonstrates the impact of nuclear power plants on patients' use of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, using pharmaceutical sales data from a national sample of hospitals. The operation of the nuclear power plant led to a 36.8% reduction in the spending of the population on radiopharmaceuticals compared to the changes in other medicines, and a 30.3% reduction in the use of radiopharmaceuticals compared to the changes in other medicines. The analysis of the dynamics of the nuclear power plant shows that the impact of the nuclear power plant on the consumption of patients does not last forever, but gradually disappears after a certain period of time. The empirical results of this paper show that the impact of the nuclear power plant on the consumption of radiopharmaceuticals by the population can last for 5 to 6 quarters, after which the effect disappears. After six quarters, the population's spending on different types of medicines returns to the level before the operation of the nuclear power plant. In order to explore the influence path of nuclear power plants affecting residents' consumption, this paper designs supplementary experiments to test the existence of the influence path. First, information triggering public opinion increases public discussion about the dangers of nuclear radiation, and in such an online public opinion environment, patients are exposed to more reports and information pushed about nuclear radiation. Although scientific research has proved that radiopharmaceuticals are relatively safe for clinical use, repeated information inputs have increased people's fear of nuclear radiation, thus reducing consumption of radiopharmaceuticals. This paper divides regions into two categories based on the Baidu index: regions with "high" and "low" public opinion about nuclear radiation. The results show that regions with "high" public opinion about nuclear radiation have a more significant impact on patients' health and safety. The results show that in areas with high public opinion about nuclear radiation, nuclear power plants have a more significant effect on patients' reduced consumption of radiopharmaceuticals. Second, the effect of nuclear power plants on consumer behavior varies depending on the environment of the individual. If residents are located in areas where groundwater is used more, their perception of the hazards of nuclear radiation will be weaker. The results of the empirical analysis show that the difference in radiopharmaceutical spending between areas with a high percentage of groundwater and areas with a low percentage of groundwater widens to 139.2%. A nuclear power plant that has a higher proportion of residential domestic water will also cause residents to pay more attention to the health of their water source, and their perception of the hazards of nuclear radiation will be strengthened as a result, ultimately amplifying the impact effect of the nuclear power plant. The empirical analysis results of this paper show that for areas with a high proportion of residential domestic water, the negative impact of nuclear power plants on residents' consumption of radiopharmaceuticals is amplified by 139.2% compared to areas with a low proportion, and the negative impact on residents' purchases is amplified by 102.2% compared to areas with a low proportion. The public's fear of radiation often leads to resistance to radiopharmaceuticals, making them more inclined to choose non-radioactive alternative treatments. Whereas the effect of nuclear radiation fear on people's consumption behavior may vary according to individual differences, information interventions and living environments are able to influence the perception of nuclear radiation fear.