Understanding the influence of power and empathic perspective-taking on collaborative natural resource management

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

卷:199

Article

Wald, Dara M.¹  Segal, Elizabeth A.²  Johnston, Erik W.³  Vinze, Ajay^4,5 

[1] Iowa State Univ, Greenlee Sch Journalism & Commun, 613 Wallace Rd, Ames, IA 50011 USA

[2] Arizona State Univ, Sch Social Work, 411 N Cent Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85004 USA

[3] Arizona State Univ, Sch Publ Affairs, 411 N Cent Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85004 USA

[4] Arizona State Univ, WP Carey Sch Business, Dept Informat Syst, POB 874606, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA

[5] Univ Missouri, Sr Coll Business, 407 Cornell Hall, Columbia, MO 65211 USA

关键词: Interpersonal communication;    Decision-making;    Public participation;    Collaborative governance;    Empathy;    Computer simulation;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.05.030

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

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. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free