Verifying Out of Alarm, or Alarmed After Verification? A Three-Wave Cross-Lagged Analysis of Multidimensional Risk Perceptions and Verification Behavior Amid Climate Misinformation in China

Risk communication research often assumes that heightened risk perception drives subsequent behavioral responses, yet this perception-to-behavior logic remains underexamined. This study differentiates personal-level and societal-level risk perception and investigates their reciprocal associations with verification behavior in the context of climate change misinformation. Using three-wave panel data from China and cross-lagged structural equation modeling, results reveal a clear asymmetry: neither type of risk perception predicted subsequent verification. Instead, verification consistently increased societal risk perception over time, but not personal-level risk perception. These findings challenge the linear perception-to-behavior assumption and highlight a behavior-to-perception feedback pathway.