The comparative importance of perceived risk to environmental quality and dispositions to be generally annoyed or sensitive to noise in predicting disturbance from aviation noise was investigated by distributing a mail-back questionnaire to 901 residents in neighborhoods bordering a small developing airport. An Environmental Noise Risk scale, developed by the authors, assessed how individuals appraise the trade-off between economic benefits from airport development and adverse environmental effects. Stepwise multiple regression analysis (N = 358) showed that as hypothesized, disturbance was predicted by assessment of environmental noise risk (β = .60, p < .0001) but not by general annoyance or noise sensitivity. Those disturbed by noise were also more discriminating in their evaluation of other less salient attributes of neighborhoods. Environmental noise risk is discussed as a construct that can contribute to understanding how people evaluate the consequences of a developing noise source.
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