Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological Perspective
Previous research highlighted that the desire for neighborhood improvement is an antecedent of the citizens’ involvement in green urban areas maintenance. Nevertheless, the topic of civic participation in the maintenance of green areas is not yet well developed in the literature and a link with loca...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-02-01
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Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816217/full |
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author | Annalisa Theodorou Angelo Panno Mariagrazia Agrimi Emanuela Masini Giuseppe Carrus |
author_facet | Annalisa Theodorou Angelo Panno Mariagrazia Agrimi Emanuela Masini Giuseppe Carrus |
author_sort | Annalisa Theodorou |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Previous research highlighted that the desire for neighborhood improvement is an antecedent of the citizens’ involvement in green urban areas maintenance. Nevertheless, the topic of civic participation in the maintenance of green areas is not yet well developed in the literature and a link with local legislation is missing. We investigate the intention of participation in such maintenance through a web-based experiment. We hypothesize that stimuli of poor (vs. good) maintenance will be associated with a higher intention of contributing to the upkeep of green areas following the administrative barter law. The administrative barter is a law approved in Italy, which gives citizens the possibility of a reduction of local taxes in exchange for their involvement in the improvement of the territory. One hundred ninety-six participants (Mage = 33.81) were assigned randomly to good maintenance condition (n = 100) or poor maintenance condition (n = 96). The level of maintenance was manipulated through photographs of a neighborhood depicting good or poor maintenance of the urban green ornamentation. Results pointed out that people showed a greater willingness to engage in the improvement of green urban areas in the poor condition as compared to the good condition, according to the administrative barter law. This study suggests that local legislation may provide an incentive fostering citizens’ involvement in green urban areas maintenance. |
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format | Article |
id | doaj.art-b29568bebaf8449a894af0dcac56debd |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1664-1078 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-13T11:28:23Z |
publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | Article |
series | Frontiers in Psychology |
spelling | doaj.art-b29568bebaf8449a894af0dcac56debd2022-12-21T23:48:03ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-02-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.816217816217Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological PerspectiveAnnalisa Theodorou0Angelo Panno1Mariagrazia Agrimi2Emanuela Masini3Giuseppe Carrus4Department of Education, Roma Tre University, Rome, ItalyDepartment of Human Science, European University of Rome, Rome, ItalyDepartment for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, ItalyDepartment for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, ItalyDepartment of Education, Roma Tre University, Rome, ItalyPrevious research highlighted that the desire for neighborhood improvement is an antecedent of the citizens’ involvement in green urban areas maintenance. Nevertheless, the topic of civic participation in the maintenance of green areas is not yet well developed in the literature and a link with local legislation is missing. We investigate the intention of participation in such maintenance through a web-based experiment. We hypothesize that stimuli of poor (vs. good) maintenance will be associated with a higher intention of contributing to the upkeep of green areas following the administrative barter law. The administrative barter is a law approved in Italy, which gives citizens the possibility of a reduction of local taxes in exchange for their involvement in the improvement of the territory. One hundred ninety-six participants (Mage = 33.81) were assigned randomly to good maintenance condition (n = 100) or poor maintenance condition (n = 96). The level of maintenance was manipulated through photographs of a neighborhood depicting good or poor maintenance of the urban green ornamentation. Results pointed out that people showed a greater willingness to engage in the improvement of green urban areas in the poor condition as compared to the good condition, according to the administrative barter law. This study suggests that local legislation may provide an incentive fostering citizens’ involvement in green urban areas maintenance.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816217/fullurban ecosystem serviceurban ecosystem disservicelocal lawurban greengreen maintenancecivic participation |
spellingShingle | Annalisa Theodorou Angelo Panno Mariagrazia Agrimi Emanuela Masini Giuseppe Carrus Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological Perspective Frontiers in Psychology urban ecosystem service urban ecosystem disservice local law urban green green maintenance civic participation |
title | Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological Perspective |
title_full | Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological Perspective |
title_fullStr | Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological Perspective |
title_full_unstemmed | Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological Perspective |
title_short | Can We Barter Local Taxes for Maintaining Our Green? A Psychological Perspective |
title_sort | can we barter local taxes for maintaining our green a psychological perspective |
topic | urban ecosystem service urban ecosystem disservice local law urban green green maintenance civic participation |
url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816217/full |
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