Influential factors of residents’ online green behavior in China: the mediating role of social trust

Abstract Environmental issues are associated with the pursuit of sustainable development in human society. To address environmental challenges, it is crucial to encourage residents to engage in pro-environmental behaviors. Instead of investigating residents’ offline pro-environmental behaviors, this study focuses on residents’ online green behavior by examining their Ant Forest use behavior. Ant Forest is an environmental protection online platform widely used in China. A total of 505 samples is obtained using a convenience sampling approach for this study. The research findings suggest that environmental risk perception has a positive impact on residents’ online green behavior. Social trust exerts a positive effect on residents’ online green behavior. More importantly, social trust partially mediates the effect of environmental risk perception on online green behavior. Unlike traditional offline pro-environmental activities, Ant Forest users need more trust and psychological support to overcome the concerns of pro-environmental engagement and supervision. Additionally, this research provides managerial implications for Ant Forest designers and environment managers enhancing Ant forest content design and promoting more pro-environmental behaviors.