Conserv. Biol. 22, 912–921 (2008)

When it comes to choosing where to live, the best environmental intentions can lead to the worst results.

M. Nils Peterson, now at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and his colleagues surveyed more than 400 households in Idaho and Wyoming. They found that the least educated people who cared least about the environment chose to live in established residential areas, with low environmental impacts. But people with high levels of education and environmental concerns chose homes in environmentally sensitive natural areas. Income was not a factor. Strangely, the longer residents lived in a natural area, the less they cared about the environment.