Abstract

This study examines the relationship between National Park visitation, place attachment, and levels of support for pro-environmental ballot measures. The theoretical argument for this relationship is that increased visitation to National Parks will lead to increased place attachment, or connection, to the National Parks. This increased connection to a place of natural beauty could cause people to be more inclined to support ballot measures that protect the environment. A survey, administered through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, was used to collect the data, and a mediation analysis was used to analyze it. The results of this study show that visitation to National Parks does increase place attachment, which in turn increases levels of support for pro-environmental ballot measures. This increase in support was seen to hold steady across two different pro-environmental ballot measures relating to different issues.

Advisor

van Doorn, Bas

Department

Political Science

Disciplines

American Politics

Keywords

National Parks, place attachment, environmental voting behavior

Publication Date

2022

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar

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