Balancing Personal Needs with Environmental Preservation: Identifying the Values that Guide Decisions in Ecological Dilemmas

A taxonomy of values that specifies three domains (i.e., economic, social, and universal) was developed and used to explore the influence personal values have on peoples decisions when placed in ecological dilemmas. Hypothetical scenarios, which pitted economic need against environmental preservation, were used to elicit individual decisions. The influence of economic and social conditions was also experimentally tested. Results from 144 University students show that subjects who embrace a universal value orientation were consistently more prone to endorse environmentally protective actions than were economically-oriented subjects. The decisions of socially-oriented subjects varied according to the social justice aspect of the situation. Furthermore, only the decisions of economically-oriented subjects were influenced by changes in the economic condition of the situation. Implications for contending with current ecological dilemmas are discussed.