Residents’ perceptions of air quality are different from the real pollution measurements and depend on socio-demographic, psychosocial, cultural, geographical, political, and other factors (Bickerstaff, 2004; Holfinger et al., 2019; Oltra et al., 2017). For instance, lower levels of education are associated with a higher discrepancy between objective measures and perceptions (Kim et al., 2012). Women traditionally perceived the quality of the air as poor compared with men (Jacquemin et al., 2007). At the same time, older people perceive air pollution levels less correctly (Deguen et al., 2017). Community attachment, media coverage, trust in the local government, or social problems in the neighborhood were also found to influence resident’s perceptions about the quality of the air (Bickerstaff & Walker, 2001; Bush et al., 2001; Hofflinger et al., 2019).
