Neural valuation of environmental resources

Abstract

How do people value environmental resources? To estimate public valuation of natural resources, researchers often conduct surveys that ask people how much they would be willing to pay to preserve or restore threatened natural resources. However, these survey responses often elicit complex affective responses, including negative reactions toward proposed destructive land uses of those resources. To better characterize processes that underlie the valuation of environmental resources, we conducted behavioral and neuroimaging experiments in which subjects chose whether or not to donate money to protect natural park lands (iconic versus non-iconic) from proposed land uses (destructive versus non-destructive). In both studies, land use destructiveness motivated subjects' donations more powerfully than did the iconic qualities of the parks themselves. Consistent with an anticipatory affect account, nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activity increased in response to more iconic parks, while anterior insula activity increased in response to more destructive uses, and the interaction of these considerations altered activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). Further, anterior insula activity predicted increased donations to preserve parks threatened by destructive uses, but MPFC activity predicted reduced donations. Finally, individuals with stronger pro-environmental attitudes showed greater anterior insula activity in response to proposed destructive uses. These results imply that negative responses to destructive land uses may play a prominent role in environmental valuation, potentially overshadowing positive responses to the environmental resources themselves. The findings also suggest that neuroimaging methods might eventually complement traditional survey methods by allowing researchers to disentangle distinct affective responses that influence environmental valuation.

Neuroscience Application for the Analysis of Cultural Ecosystem Services Related to Stress Relief in Forest

“…For example, in two papers Sawe [46,47] applies functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) to assess cost-benefit to solve issues of interest in environmental valuation as well as the application in energy policy. Sawe and Knutson [48] proposed the use of neuroimages to evaluate respondents' willingness to donate money for natural parks' conservation.…”

Imagining Change: An Integrative Approach toward Explaining the Motivational Role of Mental Imagery in Pro-environmental Behavior

“…White et al, 2010). Moreover, the effect of emotions on behavior has been supported by neuroimaging research: strong emotive responses to messages on environmental degradation can predict willingness to engage in conservation behavior (Sawe and Knutson, 2015). However, there is debate on the type of emotions that are most effective in influencing judgements (e.g., on the use of negative frames, see Ruiter et al, 2001; O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole, 2009; Moser, 2010; Spence and Pidgeon, 2010; Morton et al, 2011).…”

Empathic Care and Distress: Predictive Brain Markers and Dissociable Brain Systems

“…Conflicting evidence suggests that distress predicts both escape behavior (Batson, 2011; Batson et al, 1987) and helping behavior (Ashar, Andrews-Hanna, Yarkoni, et al, 2016) and that charitable donation is motivated by brain activity related to both positive affect (Genevsky & Knutson, 2015; Genevsky et al, 2013) and negative affect (Sawe & Knutson, 2015). …”