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A Comparison of Residents Who Moved Versus Those Who Remained Prior to Restart of Three Mile Island 1
Author(s) -
PrinceEmbury Sandra,
Rooney James F.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1989.tb01232.x
Subject(s) - worry , mile , residence , psychology , social psychology , control (management) , perceived control , faith , demography , geography , sociology , anxiety , philosophy , theology , management , geodesy , psychiatry , economics
This study examines the importance of attitudinal and demographic variables in discriminating those residents who had moved prior to the restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in 1985 from those who remained. Findings indicate that movers and stayers were discriminated by demographic factors, age, and length of residence in the vicinity. Movers and nonmovers also differed in the interrelatedness of their attitudes pertaining to environmental threat and perceived control. Among those who left, perceived threat of radiation was associated with lack of control; among those who stayed, perceived control was related to faith in experts. This difference was related to a possible defensive adaptation to environmental threat through disassociation of sense of control from worry about environmental threat by those who remained in the area.