Effects of place attachment on users’ perceptions of social and environmental conditions in a natural setting

Abstract

Research on place attachment has provided insight on the diversity of meanings humans associate with the physical environment. We provide further insight on the nature of human–place bonding by examining place attachment's effect on respondents’ perceptions of social and environmental conditions along the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the United States. Using a social judgment framework, our results indicated that the two dimensions of place attachment, place identity and place dependence, had opposing effects on the condition domains. For all condition domains, as respondents’ scores on the place identity dimension increased, they were more inclined to perceive the condition encountered as problematic. The opposite pattern of relations was observed for place dependence. These results indicate that the two dimensions of place attachment, while moderately and positively correlated, examine different sources of meaning for AT hikers.