Social Amplification of Air Pollution Risk: A Comparative Study Across Four European Regions

Societal perceptions of air pollution may stimulate public demand for sustainable, health-protective urban policies. Yet, how social, institutional, and media processes amplify or attenuate these perceptions remains insufficiently understood. Drawing on the Social Amplification of Risk Framework, which explains these contextual dynamics, this study examines how institutional contexts, media framing, and environmental policy discourse relate to perceived health risks from air pollution in four European regions: Catalonia in Spain, Skåne in the Øresund region, Estonia and Kosovo. A comparative mixed-methods design combined 2024 European Environment Agency air quality monitoring data, a cross-sectional public survey (N = 4181; with approximately 1000 per region), qualitative analysis of 186 digital news articles, review of 16 policy documents, and four expert focus groups with 27 participants. These data were used to evaluate institutional governance and trust, media framing, and policy narratives. Perceived risk did not consistently correspond to measured pollution levels. High perceived risk in Catalonia and Kosovo coincided with extensive media coverage and amplifying frames, despite contrasting institutional settings. Catalonia exhibited high institutional trust and visible sustainability frameworks, whereas Kosovo exhibited low trust and weaker policy enforcement. Skåne and Estonia showed lower perceived risk and fewer amplifying elements in media coverage, which generally situated air pollution within broader environmental management narratives. The findings indicate that institutional context, media framing, policy narratives, and symbolic or emotional elements may jointly shape public interpretations of air pollution risks. The cross-sectional, region-specific design limits causal inference and generalisability, highlighting the need for longitudinal research in a wider range of contexts.