Inducing perspective-taking for prosocial behaviour in natural resource management

Juan Felipe Ortiz-Riomalo, Ann-Kathrin Koessler () and Stefanie Engel

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2021, vol. 110, issue C

Abstract: Natural resource management often involves social dilemmas which other-regarding preferences and pro-social behaviour can help overcome. Interventions that induce resource users to consider a perspective broader than their own may help promote pro-social behaviour. Such interventions are often applied in participatory resource management approaches. To the best of our knowledge, nonetheless, no previous study has isolated and assessed the effect of inducing perspective-taking on natural resource users’ prosocial behaviour. In this study, we do so in the context of watershed management. We conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment with downstream farmers in a Peruvian watershed. In the experiment, participants were induced to imagine the perspective of upstream farmers before deciding on a donation that can help the latter improve their well-being without compromising the water supply downstream. We find that inducing perspective-taking increases unilateral prosocial behaviour. This effect cannot fully be explained by the additional information on the social and ecological characteristics of the watershed received during the perspective-taking experience. Rather the effect of the perspective-taking intervention is likely to work by inducing other-regarding preferences. Our results contribute to the study of pro-social behaviour in natural resource management and the ways in which it could be induced by interventions targeting other-regarding preferences.

Keywords: Perspective-taking; Prosocial behaviour; Other-regarding preferences; Social dilemmas; Natural resource management; Environmental policy; Framed field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D01 D64 D91 Q25 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:110:y:2021:i:c:s0095069621000814

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2021.102513

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