Psychological Ownership to Enhance Public Green Space Loyalty

Urban nature is increasingly acknowledged as being one of the suppliers of citizen health and well-being. However, currently, many publicly accessible green spaces (GS) remain underused. The present study (N = 232) examines the impact psychological ownership (PO) can have on GS attendance intention and attendance behavior (GS loyalty) while controlling for place attachment (PA). Contrary to previous research, PA showed no significant impact on GS loyalty, but an increase in PO was significantly and positively related to both intentional and behavioral loyalty. If PA is one of the most studied attitudinal factors in place loyalty research, results suggest that people's sense of PO has a potentially more interesting role to play when trying to enhance GS attendance, although PA should probably not be overlooked to move an individual from intention to action.