Meaning & use
push-pull factor
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
Something that makes people want to leave a place (a push factor) or that attracts them to a new place (a pull factor).
Grammar: Countable: talk about one factor or several factors; the plural is far more common.
Patterns
- push-pull factors behind something
- push-pull factors in migration
- a push factor for someone
- a pull factor attracting someone
Researchers listed the push-pull factors behind rural migration, from low farm wages to factory jobs in the cities.
For many students, poor local universities are a push factor, while scholarships abroad are a strong pull factor.
The report separates push-pull factors into economic, political and environmental groups.
nouncountabletechnicalfigurative
A way of explaining movement or change as the result of forces that drive people away and forces that draw them in.
Grammar: Often appears as "the push-pull factor model" or "a push-pull factor explanation"; still countable.
Patterns
- the push-pull factor model
- a push-pull factor explanation of something
- use a push-pull factor approach
Her thesis uses a push-pull factor model to explain why young workers leave small towns.
Teachers sometimes apply a push-pull factor approach to explain why readers abandon one book for another.
Word forms
| plural | push-pull factors |
|---|
Common combinations
- economic push-pull factors
- Economic push-pull factors such as wages and housing costs shape where families settle.
- push-pull factors behind migration
- The lecture covered the push-pull factors behind migration in the nineteenth century.
- identify push-pull factors
- Students were asked to identify push-pull factors in the two case studies.
- a strong pull factor
- Cheap flights became a strong pull factor for tourists.
- a major push factor
- Drought was the major push factor that emptied the villages.
Synonyms and how they differ
- driver
- Use driver for a single general cause of change; push-pull factor is more specific because it names both the force that repels and the force that attracts.
- incentive
- An incentive is usually something positive offered on purpose, like a bonus; a pull factor can be any attraction, planned or not.
- cause
- Cause is the everyday word and works in any context, while push-pull factor sounds academic and is normally used about movement or migration.
Word family
- pull factor noun
- the part of the pair that attracts people to a place
- push factor noun
- the part of the pair that drives people away from a place
Commonly confused: push-pull factor or push and pull?
push-pull factor vs push and pull
"Push and pull" describes physical forces or a marketing strategy; "push-pull factor" is about reasons for moving or changing.
Practice
Which sentence uses "push-pull factor" correctly?
Choose one answer.
The second sentence matches the meaning: one force drives people away and another draws them in. The first uses "push-pull" for a physical action, and the third and fourth use the term where no movement or attraction is involved.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “push-pull factor”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.