Anticipating environmental losses: Effects on place attachment and intentions to move

Zoe Leviston; Justine Dandy; Pierre Horwitz; Deirdre Drake

doi:10.1016/j.jmh.2023.100152

Anticipating environmental losses: Effects on place attachment and intentions to move

J Migr Health. 2023 Jan 27:7:100152. doi: 10.1016/j.jmh.2023.100152. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zoe Leviston^{1

2}, Justine Dandy^{2

3}, Pierre Horwitz^{4

3}, Deirdre Drake²

Affiliations

¹ Research School of Psychology, Australian National University, Building 39, Science Rd, Acton, 2000, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
² School of Arts & Humanities, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive Perth, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia.
³ Centre for People, Place & Planet, Edith Cowan University, Perth 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia.
⁴ School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Perth 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia.

Abstract

Environmental change is often accompanied by non-tangible, non-economic losses, including loss of valued attributes, connection to place, and social cohesion through migration in the face of such changes. Over two studies we sought to test whether imagining the loss of valued environmental characteristics influences intentions to migrate elsewhere and/or engage in place-protective actions, and whether this can be accounted for by changes to place attachment, using the city of Perth, Western Australia as a case study. In Study 1 (N = 148) we found imagined environmental loss significantly increased intentions to move away, and significantly decreased place attachment. There was no influence of imagining loss on place-protective action intentions. We replicated these findings in a representative community sample (Study 2: N = 333). In addition, we found that changes to moving intentions and place attachment related to the type of valued characteristic imagined loss, with characteristics that went beyond the explicitly environmental to encompass social relationships and lifestyle dimensions related to a tendency to stay, and lower reductions to place attachment. The implications of these findings include the inseparability of responses to environmental changes and perceptions of socio-cultural loss.

Keywords: Environmental change; Environmental loss; Migration decisions; Place attachment; Sense of place; Solastalgia.