Environmental Decision Making by Individuals and Groups

这项研究将考察由个人或群体做出决定的相对优势和劣势。研究的重点是环境决策，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)。我们将考察在这种复杂的选择情况下个人与群体决策过程和结果的质量，并调查群体组成的影响，特别是影响决策的心理特征的群体差异以及成员接收决策相关信息的方式的群体差异的影响。我们对潜在的实际重要性进行了(新的)区分，即在预定的小组和幼稚的小组之间进行区分，这些小组的成员在将问题或决定作为一个小组进行审议之前已经单独考虑过该问题或决定，而幼稚的小组是在小组设置中第一次考虑问题或决定的。我们还将通过在包括美国、荷兰和阿根廷在内的多个国家进行一系列研究，检验跨文化态度和价值观差异对群体决策过程和结果的影响。最近一期《公共利益中的心理科学》(Kozlowski Ilgen，2006年)强调了工作小组的普遍存在和提高小组效力的重要性。拟议的研究将提出以下建议：(A)哪些类型的决策受益于由团体而不是个人作出的决定；(B)团体的组成和准备如何影响团体决策；(C)如何通过更好地了解这些动态来改进团体决策过程；以及(D)如何在实地实施这些改进。我们的成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，并赋予利益攸关方更广泛的权力。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不同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.