title: Town mouse or country mouse: identifying a town dislocation effect in Chinese urbanization.
abstract: Understanding urbanization and evaluating its impact are vital for formulating global sustainable development. The results obtained from evaluating the impact of urbanization, however, depend on the kind of measurement used. With the goal of increasing our understanding of the impact of urbanization, we developed direct and indirect subjective indicators to measure how people assess their living situation. The survey revealed that the projected endorsements and perceived social ambiance of people toward living in different types of settlements did not improve along with the urbanization level in China. The assessment scores from the city dwellers were not significantly different from those from the country areas and, more surprisingly, both were significantly higher than the assessment scores of the town dwellers, which we had expected to fall between the assessment scores of the country and city dwellers. Instead their scores were the lowest. We dubbed this V-shaped relationship the "town dislocation effect." When searching for a potential explanation for this effect, we found additional town dislocation effects in social support, loss aversion, and receptivity toward genetically modified food. Further analysis showed that only social support mediated the relationship between the three tiers of settlements (cities, country areas, and towns) and the subjective indicator. The projected endorsements yielded significant subjective assessments that could enhance our understanding of Chinese urbanization. Towns posed specific problems that require special attention.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Management School, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xin-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Peng
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Li-Lin
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Zhen
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Center for Mental Health, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Zhi
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012931:Social Environment; D012944:Social Support; D014507:Urbanization; D055815:Young Adult