Identity Processes and Environmental Threat: the Effects of Nationalism and Local Identity upon Perception of Beach Pollution

Abstract

This study examines the importance of local and national identity processes in predicting the perception of a threat to the local environment: pollution of British beaches defined in terms of European Union (EU) regulations concerning cleanliness. Place identity and social identity theories would predict that English people would exhibit positive discrimination when evaluating both their local and national beaches and would allow ingroup preferences to influence their estimates of beach pollution. The study involved administering questionnaires to 347 English students drawn from secondary schools in six seaside resorts (three with 'polluted' beaches, and three with 'unpolluted' beaches according to the EU criteria). It was hypothesized that degree of both local and national identification would predict variance in perceived levels of pollution independently of either the EU categorization or the physical evidence of pollution available. On the whole, results confirmed this main hypothesis: subjects who were more attached to their town or their nation tended to perceive their local and national beaches as less polluted. Traditional predictors of environmental evaluation (such as socio-demographic variables, environmental concern, use of the environment) did not play an important role in predicting beach pollution perception. Denial of physical assessments of pollution was interpreted as a strategy used to cope with the threat to place identity posed by the labelling of local beaches by a powerful outgroup (the EU).

Making sense of unfamiliar risks in the countryside: The case of Lyme disease

“…For example, residents tend to discount the risks present in their immediate or local environment, sometimes showing more concern for global than for local environmental problems, or more concern the farther they live from them (Uzzell, 2000;Räthzel and Uzzell, 2009). Residents living close to incinerators (Lima, 2004), polluted beaches (Bonaiuto, Breakwell, and Cano, 1996), or nuclear plants (Parkhill, Pidgeon, et al, 2010) …”

Stigma and Attachment: Performance of Identity in an Environmentally Degraded Place

“…Focusing on individual identities, environmental psychologists have defined place identity as one of the basic components of selfidentity. Place identity refers to the aspects of identity defined in relation to the physical 3 environment, and the conceptual understanding which enables the individual to interact in a particular setting (Proshansky 1978;Bonaiuto et al 1996;Hopkins and Dixon 2006;Manzo and Perkins 2006). The concept of place identity has been further developed by identifying other characteristics of the bond between identity and place such as 'sense of place', 'place attachment' or 'place dependence', triggering explorations of the differences and connections between these terms (Low and Altman 1993;Hummon 1993;Manzo 2003;Stedman 2003;Smaldone et al 2005).…”

“…Environmental degradation may have discernible impacts on social understandings of the degraded place and in the formation of identities (Davenport and Anderson 2005). Such environmental transformations can pose a threat to existing social identities and generate adaptative responses (Brown and Perkins 1993;Bonaiuto et al 1996;Twigger-Ross and Uzzell 1996;Hopkins and Dixon 2006). In these circumstances sense of place can be an important mediator for social experiences of the place (Simmons and Walker 2005).…”

The Psycho-Spatial Dimension of Global Environmental Problems

“…First, there has been an attempt to move away from surveys which seek simply to measure the public's breadth and depth of concern about the environment and to set the research within a more theoretically-driven framework (Bonaiuto et al, 1996). Second, there has been more of an emphasis placed on understanding the determinants and predictors of environmental concern (Klineberg, McKeever, & Rothenbach.…”

“…In the same study, the authors found that respondents from 'developing' countries were far more concerned about local environmental problems than respondents from the industrialised nations. As Bonaiuto et al (1996) point out, although environmental issues are increasingly seen as international in terms of extent, impact and necessary response, social psychological studies have traditionally treated them as locally centred and limited to a single country. Thus they have been decontextualised in that not only has the local/global environmental dimension been minimised, but perhaps more significantly the local/global social psychological effects have also been minimised.…”