This research engages a fundamental question for cognitive science and decision making: what is at stake in cultural resource conflict over human-environment interactions? One of the most fundamental concepts under debate involves what-or-who is at stake in environmental dilemmas. Understanding people's environmental behavior requires understanding how they relate to other life forms as intentional agents worthy of moral consideration. This interdisciplinary research investigates how concepts of nonhuman agency interrelate with environmental cognition and decision making across two communities living in a shared ecosystem: Indigenous Ngöbe and mainstream (Ladino, Euro-American) actors in Bocas del Toro, Panama (also including selected comparisons to standard U.S. samples). Studies employ cognitive and psychological methods to target key predictions concerning cultural variation in nonhuman agency concepts, and associated reasoning about moral circles and ecological causation. It is predicted that cultural differences in cognition will lead individuals to approach environmental decision making in very different ways: either as an ecological question that positions humans as users and protectors of the environment, or as a social question that positions both humans and nonhumans as intentional stakeholders in shared community.
This dissertation research will advance cognitive theory by offering a novel analysis of the conceptual frameworks involved in reasoning about nature across cultures, providing insight into the moral and causal dimensions of ecological thought. A distinct advantage of this work is its focus on under-represented perspectives of indigenous communities, contributing to the diversity of social science study populations and offering a unique vantage point on environmental questions. By documenting how cultural concepts and values impact perceptions of environmental tradeoffs, this research sheds light on cultural resource conflict (and cooperation) between indigenous and mainstream groups. More broadly, the results will deepen knowledge about the cultural and cognitive factors underlying environmental decision making, speaking to core issues in the decision science of human-environment interactions.
