Attribution of Responsibility and Individual and Collective Coping with Environmental Threats

Abstract

This article summarizes many of the sources of stress that often accompany environmental threats, examines both individual and collective strategies for coping with environmental threats and the efficacy of these strategies, and discusses some of the problems with measuring coping strategies and with gauging their success. It describes collective coping strategies within the framework of social and institutional networks, and it considers why grass‐roots citizen groups are often formed as a coping strategy and what needs these organizations seem to fulfill. It presents some empirical research on individual and collective coping strategies derived from an investigation that examined residents' coping strategies in response to living near a large hazardous waste landfill. Finally, it addresses some of the social and policy implications of the ways that people cope with environmental hazards.