TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the influence of power and empathic perspective-taking on collaborative natural resource management
AU - Wald, Dara M.
AU - Segal, Elizabeth
AU - Johnston, Erik
AU - Vinze, Ajay
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for support with data collection from A. Bhat and manuscript preparation from K. Hirsch. This material is based upon work partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SES-1462086, DMUU: DCDC III: Transformational Solutions for Urban Water Sustainability Transitions in the Colorado River Basin. Additional funding for this effort was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AN-1530847. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendation expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - Public engagement in collaborative natural resource management necessitates shared understanding and collaboration. Empathic perspective-taking is a critical facilitator of shared understanding and positive social interactions, such as collaboration. Yet there is currently little understanding about how to reliably generate empathic perspective-taking and collaboration, particularly in situations involving the unequal distribution of environmental resources or power. Here we examine how experiencing the loss or gain of social power influenced empathic perspective-taking and behavior within a computer-mediated scenario. Participants (n = 180) were randomly assigned to each condition: high resources, low resources, lose resources, gain resources. Contrary to our expectations, participants in the perspective-taking condition, specifically those who lost resources, also lost perspective taking and exhibited egoistic behavior. This finding suggests that resource control within the collaborative process is a key contextual variable that influences perspective-taking and collaborative behavior. Moreover, the observed relationship between perspective-taking and egoistic behavior within a collaborative resource sharing exercise suggests that when resource control or access is unequal, interventions to promote perspective-taking deserve careful consideration.
AB - Public engagement in collaborative natural resource management necessitates shared understanding and collaboration. Empathic perspective-taking is a critical facilitator of shared understanding and positive social interactions, such as collaboration. Yet there is currently little understanding about how to reliably generate empathic perspective-taking and collaboration, particularly in situations involving the unequal distribution of environmental resources or power. Here we examine how experiencing the loss or gain of social power influenced empathic perspective-taking and behavior within a computer-mediated scenario. Participants (n = 180) were randomly assigned to each condition: high resources, low resources, lose resources, gain resources. Contrary to our expectations, participants in the perspective-taking condition, specifically those who lost resources, also lost perspective taking and exhibited egoistic behavior. This finding suggests that resource control within the collaborative process is a key contextual variable that influences perspective-taking and collaborative behavior. Moreover, the observed relationship between perspective-taking and egoistic behavior within a collaborative resource sharing exercise suggests that when resource control or access is unequal, interventions to promote perspective-taking deserve careful consideration.
KW - Collaborative governance
KW - Computer simulation
KW - Decision-making
KW - Empathy
KW - Interpersonal communication
KW - Public participation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.05.030
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.05.030
M3 - Article
C2 - 28544926
AN - SCOPUS:85019358093
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 199
SP - 201
EP - 210
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
ER -