Environmental Decision Making by Individuals and Groups

这项研究将检验由个人或团体做出决定的相对优势和劣势。研究重点是环境决策，这是一类重要而复杂的决策，涉及不确定性，在不同且通常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）。我们将研究这种复杂选择情况下个人与群体决策过程和结果的质量，并调查群体构成的影响，特别是影响决策的心理特征的群体差异，以及成员接受决策相关信息的方式的群体差异。我们对潜在的实际重要性进行了（新的）区分，即在预先决定的群体中，其成员在作为一个群体进行审议之前已经单独考虑过一个问题或决定，而幼稚的群体是在群体环境中第一次考虑一个问题或决定。我们还将通过在多个国家（包括美国、荷兰和阿根廷）进行一组研究，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)哪些类型的决策受益于群体而不是个人，(b)群体决策如何受到群体组成和准备的影响，(c)如何通过更好地了解这些动态来改进群体决策过程，以及(d)如何在该领域实施这些改进。我们的研究结果还可以提高环境决策参与性过程的有效性，这是包括世界银行在内的一些组织最近呼吁的，希望它们能提高决策效率，更广泛地赋予利益相关者权力。虽然参与式过程可以产生这样的结果，但需要更多地了解典型异质利益相关者的群体互动如何影响决策过程，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.