Ipsative Crystallization Effects on Wildland Fire Attitude—Policy Support Models

ABSTRACT Understanding public attitudes toward wildland fire management policies is important for effectively managing natural resources and communicating with the pubic. Ipsative crystallization is a measure of individual attitude consensus. This article examines the utility of ipsative crystallization (IC) measures in better understanding attitudes toward and support for three wildland fire management policies (let the fire burn, contain the fire, and put the fire out). Data were obtained from a mailed survey of 1269 visitors to three national forests adjacent to large urban areas of the western United States. IC was operationalized as each respondent's standard deviation from repeated measures of policy support across a set of wildland fire scenarios, and ranged from 0 (high crystallization) to 3.21 (low crystallization). Results indicated that between 41% (let the fire burn) and 53% (contain the fire) of the respondents were highly crystallized in their support for wildland fire policies. IC moderated the effect of attitudes toward wildland fire on support for each wildland fire policy. Results provide evidence that IC may be an important, unrecognized variable in ongoing efforts to affect wildland fire policy support.

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