Why Loving Your City Makes You Vulnerable in a Disaster

As any besotted adolescent can tell you, love makes you do dumb things. That may be true even when the object of your affection is the city where you live.

According to a recent study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, residents of the flood-prone city of Vibo Valentia, Italy, readily acknowledged that living where they did made them vulnerable to disaster. That didn't mean they were going to do anything about it. In fact, the more attached residents were to their town—signified by their agreement with statements such as "This is the ideal place for me” and "It would be very hard for me to leave this place"—the less likely they were to prepare for a future catastrophe by signing up for emergency preparation classes or pledging to gather supplies.