On Tuesday, Oct. 7, University of Idaho Assistant Professor Chris Zajchowski explored the connection between levels of air quality and the effect it has on behavioral decision-making in his presentation ,”‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’: Air Quality and Behavioral Decision-Making.”
Zajchowski is an assistant professor of parks, tourism and recreation ecology. He is a part of the College of Natural Resources and the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. Zajchowski directs UI’s Parks and Recreation Lab, and studies how people engage with nature, parks and protected areas, as well as environments experiencing poor air quality.
In his presentation, Zajchowski’s first point was that humans are the ones who make decisions about air quality. He made this cited significant changes to the air quality index within recent years. Prior to 2024, 12 micrograms per cubic meter was considered good air quality. But during the Biden administration, the threshold was dropped to nine micrograms per cubic meter.
“The quality of our air is [as] we can objectively measure it, but we as a public get to decide what’s good air quality, what’s unhealthy for sensitive groups,” Zajchowski said. “We decide that; our rule makers decide that.”
Zajchowski said that different nation states are going to make sense of air quality in different ways. He backed this statement up with a graphic from a 2023 paper, comparing how the U.S. and China label their air quality. Values that were considered “good” in the U.S. were labelled as “excellent” air quality in China.
“There are semantic framings around the type of air that you’re breathing based off of the nation state that you’re living in,” Zajchowski said.
Since air quality is up to the interpretation of the people, Zajchowski answered the question of what we do when the air quality gets bad. Zajchowski said that what he and his team found is that the behaviors that people exhibited aligned with the theoretical foundations of recreation substitutability.
One of the places he focused on was Salt Lake City, where, depending on the weather conditions, the city could have the smoke trapped in by cold air mass from the mountains. Zajchowski looked into how people travel to get out of these conditions for recreation, while knowing that they are also contributing to the issue.
“We saw this wicked feedback loop where people would want to escape, then they’d have this tension between how to do it, they would be aware of their contribution, but try to either justify it or negotiated, and then emissions would be created,” Zajchowski said.
Zajchowski said that while people might want to change the time, place or activity due to the air quality, economic factors challenge that. Zajchowski referenced Daniel Kahneman’s work in behavioral economics that people will view loss disproportionately to gains.
At a national level, Zajchowski said people do not avert or prevent air quality related discomfort, which he said some might consider somewhat irrational behavior.
Zajchowski raised the question of how new people in Idaho react to the air quality. Studies found new groups believed knowledge and self-efficacy mattered, and protective behaviors were important. Idaho natives did not have the same concerns.
“The hope is the work that we’re doing and that other people are doing informs the information and communication you’re getting about how to protect yourself and manage the risks that exist in these spaces,” Zajchowski said.
The next Renfrew Colloquium presentation will feature Melissa Davlin, the lead producer and host of Idaho Reports for Idaho Public Television. Davlin will be presenting on behind the scenes at “Idaho Reports.”
For more information on the Renfrew Colloquium and the semester schedule, visit www.uidaho.edu/letters-arts-social-sciences/news-events/renfrew-colloquium.
Reagan Jones can be reached at [email protected].