In current work, the phenomenon of NIMBY (not in my back yard) for a municipal solid waste incinerator was recognized through an investigation for the evolution of individual risk attitude to group risk attitude (ItGRA). The cellular automaton model was employed to evaluate the risk attitude status with different frequencies of social interaction between residents. In the simulation case, the risk attitude of residents in the pseudo-rational state and non-pseudo-rational state was evaluated, which indicates the sheep-flock effect on the exaggeration of public NIMBY attitude. To the incinerator, the individual risk attitude evolved to supportive group risk attitude at a social interaction frequency 100 times higher than that in family or local neighborhoods, when the initial number of residents in opposition and support was equal. This was supported by the result of the model in the evaluation of resident risk attitude around the incinerator in Shanghai. On the contrary, for those in a non-pseudo-rational state, the ultimate group risk attitude depends on the probability that the residents have a supportive or opposing risk attitude as the concept of individuals was difficult to change. Accordingly, the decision strategy of incinerator construction should consider the influence of the sheep-flock effect, which can increase the attitude of residents in support and lead to the evolution of a group risk attitude to support attitude. Therefore, this study provides insight into the evolution of public attitude to NIMBY attitude and a promising evaluation method to quantify and guide the individual and group risk attitudes.

The social risk of chemical industry park projects attracts much attention, as they are perceived to yield strong environmental risks. This paper systematically evaluates the social risk of Xuwei Chemical Park in China, which was investigated as an example to guide the risk control strategy of conflict in industrial facilities for developing countries. The results show that residents and government departments have a resistance to the risks of the project as a stronger sense of group risk perception (the value is 7 × 10⁻⁶) compared with the basic value of 7 × 10⁻⁵. By contrast, the low value of group risk perception was evaluated in an enterprise group (7 × 10⁻⁴), indicating that the risks of petrochemical projects are often accepted. The expert group’s risk perception regarding petrochemical projects is consistent with the basic value. This is a very interesting finding indicating that the greater the experience, the more the support for petrochemical projects. The knowledge and information from education or experience improve the judgment of the risk of the facility, which increases the individual’s rational assessment comprehension of risk. Moreover, factors that are significantly related to residents’ attitudes are information cognitive factors (trust in information publicity and petrochemical project understanding), and project influencing factors (project planning rationality, quality of life improvement, and economic development satisfaction). Among them, the degree of trust in information disclosure has the highest degree of influence, followed by the level of education, while the satisfaction with economic development has the lowest degree of influence. Therefore, improving the trust of residents in the information disclosure of petrochemical projects should be the core of the government’s risk control policy.

To control energy consumption, China issued the environmental regulation policy of the Top-1000 Energy-Saving Program in 2006, and it remains to be examined whether this policy will impact enterprises’ labor demand while promoting energy conservation and consumption reduction. Based on the panel data of Chinese enterprises (2000–2010), this study employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method to investigate the impact of the Top-1000 Energy-Saving Program on the labor demand of enterprises. It is found that the policy significantly reduces enterprises’ labor demand, a finding that passes several robustness tests. Second, the effects of the policy show heterogeneity across enterprises of various sizes, ownership structures, and regions. Finally, the mechanism analysis verifies the existence of an output effect leading to a decline in enterprises’ labor demand, while the substitution effect manifests itself in the substitution of enterprises’ labor demand with the increase of capital and technological innovation. This study provides important empirical evidence for the improvement of energy efficiency policies.

This paper examines the relationship between digital–real economy integration (DREI) and household consumption using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces over the period 2014–2024. By developing an entropy-weighted modified coupling coordination model, the level of DREI is quantitatively measured, and the mechanisms of its impact and its heterogeneity at the household consumption level are explored. The empirical results show that strengthening DREI has a significant positive impact on household consumption, particularly in China’s central region and in the goods sector. Additionally, this paper identifies three primary channels through which DREI can promote household consumption: optimizing the business environment to minimize transaction costs, developing logistics to improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and promoting financial inclusion to boost household consumption potential. The findings in this paper have significant policy implications for leveraging DREI to transform China’s economic growth pattern towards high-quality domestic demand in the era of artificial intelligence and sustainable development.