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Resumo

Previous studies found that although the designated migrants in China's Three Gorges region showed strong support for the project, they also expressed concerns about the project's likely negative impact on their family life. A psychological explanation is proposed to reconcile these apparent contradictory findings. The empirical validity of the proposed interpretation is evaluated using survey data collected from rural and urban communities in Wanxian Relocation and Development Region in Chongqing Municipality. The findings from our analysis are consistent with the proposed interpretation. The authors found that the designated migrants who anticipate more personal sacrifices are more likely to express concerns about the project's negative micro-impact on their family. Facing the undesirable relocation that is imposed on them, however, these designated migrants rationalize personal sacrifices by affirming the positive macro-impact of the project. The authors see the latter as a psychological coping strategy used by the designated migrants to resolve the cognitive dissonance of having to act on something despite its undesirable consequences.

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