Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment

Dealing with trade-offs lies at the heart of environmental impact assessment (EIA). However, there has been scant reflection to date on the concept of trade-offs within the EIA literature. This paper aims to contribute to the thinking about trade-offs by distilling key learning points from research...

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Main Authors: Retief, Francois, Morrison- Saunders, A, Geneletti, Devide, Pope, Jennifer
Format: Journal Article
Published: Beech Tree Publishing 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44891
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author Retief, Francois
Morrison- Saunders, A
Geneletti, Devide
Pope, Jennifer
author_facet Retief, Francois
Morrison- Saunders, A
Geneletti, Devide
Pope, Jennifer
author_sort Retief, Francois
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Dealing with trade-offs lies at the heart of environmental impact assessment (EIA). However, there has been scant reflection to date on the concept of trade-offs within the EIA literature. This paper aims to contribute to the thinking about trade-offs by distilling key learning points from research conducted within the field of psychology. In particular, the paper explores three interrelated questions namely: When are trade-off decisions difficult? How do we react when faced with difficult trade-off decisions? And how can we deal with difficult trade-off decisions? The research confirms that EIA functions within a very difficult trade-off decision-making context and that observed behaviour related to these difficult decisions can be explained from a psychology perspective. In order to deal better with trade-off decisions, it is helpful to be able to predict decision difficulty and anticipate resultant behaviour. Moreover, the way we present and frame decisions affects their outcomes.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:23:12Z
format Journal Article
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:23:12Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Beech Tree Publishing
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-448912023-02-22T06:24:19Z Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment Retief, Francois Morrison- Saunders, A Geneletti, Devide Pope, Jennifer Dealing with trade-offs lies at the heart of environmental impact assessment (EIA). However, there has been scant reflection to date on the concept of trade-offs within the EIA literature. This paper aims to contribute to the thinking about trade-offs by distilling key learning points from research conducted within the field of psychology. In particular, the paper explores three interrelated questions namely: When are trade-off decisions difficult? How do we react when faced with difficult trade-off decisions? And how can we deal with difficult trade-off decisions? The research confirms that EIA functions within a very difficult trade-off decision-making context and that observed behaviour related to these difficult decisions can be explained from a psychology perspective. In order to deal better with trade-off decisions, it is helpful to be able to predict decision difficulty and anticipate resultant behaviour. Moreover, the way we present and frame decisions affects their outcomes. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44891 10.1080/14615517.2013.768007 Beech Tree Publishing unknown
spellingShingle Retief, Francois
Morrison- Saunders, A
Geneletti, Devide
Pope, Jennifer
Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment
title Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment
title_full Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment
title_fullStr Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment
title_short Exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment
title_sort exploring the psychology of trade-off decision-making in environmental impact assessment
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44891