Air pollution is a huge global environmental issue, scientists have only recently begun to pay attention to its psychological repercussions. We investigated whether and how air pollution could contribute to dehumanisation of oneself and others. One field research and five pre-registered experimental investigations were conducted. Since 2017, the Chinese government has suggested a clean heating programme in response to the significant air pollution generated by winter heating. The DID technique is used to assess the impact of this strategy on air pollution in northern cities using air quality monitoring and household micro-survey data. According to the empirical results, the pilot cities' air quality index has lowered by 12.3 units, indicating that the clean heating strategy has greatly reduced air pollution.

Severe air pollution harms public health and causes a loss of human capital, which is a major source of worry in emerging countries. While the causality of air pollution-induced "brain drain" has gained much study attention, the fundamental reasons of air pollution-driven migrants remain unknown. This research examines the short-term influence of air pollution on Chinese citizens' overseas migration aspirations using high-frequency monitoring data and extensive survey data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey.