Espousers of the Local attribute are very community-minded, caring deeply about their local environment and the people living in their area. Where they live is an important part of their identity. They waste little time on playing the blame game when problems occur – they prefer to wipe the slate clean and move on to active solutions.

Caring for each other becomes synonymous with taking care of their community, because the person you help is likely to help someone else, or has helped others in the past — a dynamic network of supportive relationships that results in the sum of the parts being larger than the whole. The most visible examples tend to be in communities with higher income households, but this is not exclusively so.

Local espousers like to know the people that they help, so that it moves beyond a sense of duty. Getting to know people on an individual basis means that they learn how best to care for someone, to anticipate emerging needs and to prevent problems turning into crises. Supporting others could range from formal volunteering, to a natural urge to helping your neighbour, through to a valued paid social role. Whatever form it takes, the primary reward is the experience of caring and the act of giving.

While there are no significant differences between male and female Local espousers, there are a couple of different motivational patterns at work. For some, there is no sense of personal obligation, because the intrinsic joy of helping becomes a natural part of their everyday lives and core to how they see themselves. For others, the drive is more external, coming from some kind of higher authority, whether that be respected leaders in their local community, or through a set of guiding beliefs such as those associated with a religion and their local places of worship.

As well as helping people, they also like to care for the environment. Thinking globally and acting locally is particularly important for them, because it matches with their worldview and because they like to see and experience the evidence of their actions — a cleaner neighbourhood, truly fresh air to breathe and sustainable systems in place to recycle products or share services. Businesses, especially local businesses will be challenged if they do not meet environmental standards, alongside their commitment to taking care of their employees. In some cases the only action possible is to stop buying their products.

This attribute is where thoughts move truly into practice, with lots of time and effort dedicated to grounding beliefs in their immediate surroundings. Local espousers are likely to set very high standards for themselves and others that are not easy to meet; however, they value those who try and keep on trying to make things better for their neighbours and the local environment.