The dissertation research will test an assumption pervasive in the field of Ecological Economics that people make more altruistically-motivated environmental decisions after participating in structured, group deliberation. The deliberative environmental valuation research is still preliminary and inconclusive due to a lack of definitive research results in this area. If group discussion is shown to affect individuals' environmental values in ways that better reflect the social good, then economic and other social science researchers using the survey method to provide input to policy decisions about the environment and other non-market goods would be well-advised to include discussion as part of the survey process.
The project will use a current, critical environmental issue as a case study for the research--whether to allow oil development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. It will involve the random selection of control and treatment groups in which a broad range of costs and benefits of coastal plain development will be discussed prior to the completion of a survey intended to elicit participants' preferences for oil development or wilderness designation. The work involves travel to Anchorage and re mote bush villages in Alaska to produce a videotape of interviews with governmental, industry and environmental spokespersons, and indigenous Alaska Native groups who will be most directly affected if the coastal plain is opened to oil development. The video will be used to provide background information to the group participants in New York, where the survey work is planned, used for teaching and community outreach, and made available to public television. The research results will be disseminated in professional journals and summarized for elected officials and other interested parties.
