Collaborative Research: Cultural Models, Values, and Networks in Environmental Decisions

本研究分析了环境决策中知识、行为和价值观的相互作用。 数据收集自两个地点，美洲原住民和多数文化人口共享一个栖息地，但冲突的资源用途：沃尔夫河地区的威斯康星州和危地马拉的低地玛雅森林地区。 研究整合了心理学、人类学和社会学的正式建模技术，表明：（1）人们共享环境的文化模型，其详细程度令人惊讶;（2）这些心理模型告知并预测实际行为，具有可衡量的生态后果;（3）模型中的个体和文化差异受到不同资源评估模式的激励。 研究结果预计将建立：（4）跨文化生态认知的第一近似，（5）认知维度，以激励人们如何决定管理共同资源的新研究;（6）冲突解决谈判的综合基础，包括理解环境认知，行为和价值观之间的关系。

The research analyzes the interaction of knowledge, behaviors and values in environmental decision making. Data are collected from two sites where Native American and majority culture populations share a habitat but conflict over resource use: the Wolf River area of Wisconsin and the Lowland Maya forest region of Guatemala. Studies integrate formal modeling techniques from psychology, anthropology and sociology to show that: (1) people share cultural models of the environment to a surprisingly detailed degree; (2) these mental models inform and predict actual behaviors, with measurable ecological consequences; and (3) individual and cultural differences in models are motivated by different patterns of resource valuation. Research findings are expected to establish: (4) a first approximation of ecological cognition across cultures, (5) a cognitive dimension to stimulate new research on how people decide to manage common resources; and (6) a comprehensive basis for conflict-resolution negotiation that involves understanding the relations between environmental cognitions, behaviors and values.