The Role of Values and Ethical Principles in Judgments of Environmental Dilemmas

In this article, we explore generally the extent to which individuals apply values and ethical principles in a consistent way across different environmental ethical issues. In the first study, it was shown that the context in which ones values are assessed is important. Specifically, values assessed in the typical abstract way, as guiding principles in one's life, showed a different pattern of association with factors of environmental dilemmas than did values assessed with regard to their use as guiding principles for the environment. In the second study, respondents who were experienced in making water allocation decisions, were asked to rank the importance of 16 ethical considerations as they applied to five different, current water allocation problems in Australia. The results showed that the importance ratings of the ethical considerations were similar for all the water allocation case studies. The results were discussed in terms of the effects of context on values/ethical criteria and environmental dilemmas.