Environmental Decision Making by Individuals and Groups

这项研究将探讨由个人或由一个群体做出决定的相对优势和劣势。该研究侧重于环境决策，这是一类重要而复杂的决策，涉及不确定性，在不同且往往遥远的时间点实现的后果，以及相互冲突的目标（短期与长期，个人与集体，物质与道德/伦理，合作与竞争）。我们将研究个人与群体决策过程和结果的质量，这种复杂的选择情况，并调查组的组成，特别是已知的影响决策的心理特征和群体变异的方式成员接收决策相关信息的群体变异的影响。我们做了一个（新的）区分潜在的实际重要性，即预先决定的群体，其成员已经考虑了一个问题或决定单独审议之前，作为一个群体和天真的群体谁是考虑一个问题或决定的第一次在组设置。我们还将通过在多个国家（包括美国，荷兰和阿根廷）进行一系列研究，研究态度和价值观的跨文化差异对群体决策过程和结果的影响。最近一期的《公共利益中的心理科学》（Kozlowski Ilgen 2006）强调了工作小组的普遍性和提高小组效率的重要性。拟议的研究将建议（a）什么类型的决策受益于由群体而不是个人，（B）如何影响群体的组成和准备的群体决策，（c）如何群体决策过程可以改善作为一个更好地了解这些动态的结果，以及（d）如何这些改进可以在现场实施。我们的研究结果还可以提高环境决策中参与性进程的有效性，这是包括世界银行在内的几个组织最近呼吁的，希望它们能够提高决策效率，并更广泛地赋予利益攸关方权力。虽然参与性进程可以产生这样的结果，但需要更多地了解典型的异质利益攸关方的群体互动如何影响决策进程，以及参与是否、何时以及如何成为一种有用的工具。

This research will examine the relative advantages and disadvantages of having decisions made by an individual or by a group. The research focuses on environmental decisions, an important and complex class of decisions that involve uncertainty, consequences that are realized at different and often distant points in time, and conflicting goals (short- vs. long-term, individual vs. collective, material vs. moral/ethical, cooperative vs. competitive). We will examine the quality of individual vs. group decision processes and outcomes for such complex choice situations and investigate the effect of group composition, in particular of group variation in psychological traits known to affect decision making and of group variation in the way members receive decision-relevant information. We make a (new) distinction of potential practical importance, namely between predecided groups whose members have considered a problem or decision individually before deliberating it as a group and naive groups who are considering a problem or decision for the first time in the group setting. We will also examine the effect of cross-cultural differences in attitudes and values on group decision processes and outcomes, by conducting a subset of studies in multiple countries, including the US, the Netherlands, and Argentina. A recent issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Kozlowski Ilgen 2006) highlights the ubiquity of work groups and the importance of improving group effectiveness. The proposed research will suggest (a) what types of decisions benefit from being made by groups rather than individuals, (b) how group decisions are affected by the composition and preparation of the group, (c) how group decision processes can be improved as a result of a better understanding of these dynamics, and (d) how these improvements can be implemented in the field. Our results can also improve the effectiveness of participatory processes in environmental decisions, which is something several organizations, including the World Bank, have recently called for, with the hope that they lead to greater efficiency of decisions and broader empowerment of stakeholders. While participatory processes can have such outcomes, more needs to be known about how group interactions of typically heterogeneous stakeholders affect decision processes and whether, when, and how participation is a useful tool.