Sentiment and Evaluation as Ecological Variables

Abstract

This article focuses on the different correlates of residents' evaluative and sentimental feelings toward local areas in the Seattle, Washington metropolitan area. Evaluation is measured by satisfaction with the residential environment, while sentiment is indicated by the degree to which respondents would miss an area after moving away from it. The two types of feelings about the local community are correlated positively, partly because they have similar major predictors. However, certain aspects of neighborhood life and certain individual characteristics relate' differently to the two variables, and it appears that the types of feelings have different conceptual bases. Both evaluation and sentiment are found to affect, although sometimes in dissimilar ways, the probability of individuals' moving and taking political action to defend their community.