The influence of home: Place attachment and its role in environmental concern and behavior in the Great Lakes region.

Abstract

The influence of place attachment on environmental concerns, attitudes, and behavior is not yet well defined. Identity helps to drive decision-making, and as part of one’s history, attachment to place may play a role in informing one’s attitudes and actions. Understanding the strength of this influence on issues of both global and local scales is of particular interest to this study. Great Lakes residents’ opinions and selfreported behavior were measured via survey (n=133). A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were used to explore whether place attachment was a significant predictor of climate change attitudes, conservation behavior, and concerns about local environmental issues. Findings from these analyses reveal that place attachment exerts a much stronger influence on concerns about local environmental issues, while political orientation arose as a stronger influence of broader, more global environmental issues. Further study of place attachment in relation to these issues at the local level may help deepen our understanding of how to encourage pro-environmental behavior