DECISIVENESS, ATTITUDE EXPRESSION AND SYMBOLIC RESPONSES IN CONTINGENT VALUATION SURVEYS

Despite suggestions that respondents to contingent valuation studies o ften follow alternate models of individual decision making, few theore tical models have been developed. The paper presents a theoretical mod el of symbolic and attitude-expressive contingent valuation responses, drawing on relevant contributions in psychology and political science . It is argued that the highly symbolic and emotional nature of many e nvironmental issues often activates the need for individuals to expres s their attitudes and values, which when coupled with a perceived non- decisiveness of individual questionnaire responses, can result in valu e-expressive considerations dominating some CVM responses at the expen se of the desired outcome-appraisal economic tradeoffs. The implicatio ns for some topical issues in CVM are explored. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scie nce B.V.