Ethical motives and charitable contributions in contingent valuation: Empirical evidence from social psychology and economics

Contingent valuation of the environment has proven popular amongst environm ental economists in recent years and has increased the role of monetary val uation in public policy. However, the underlying economic model of human ps ychology fails to explain why certain types of stated behaviour are observe d. Thus, good scope exists for interdisciplinary research in the area of ec onomics and psychology with regard to environmental valuation. A critical r eview is presented here of some recent research by social psychologists in the US attempting to explain stated behaviour in contingent valuation. Atti tudinal scales have been used to analyse the role of ecocentric, biocentric and altruistic motives for giving. However, the research is shown to draw some potentially misleading conclusions and be unrepresentative of continge nt valuation. Two recent economic studies using contingent valuation are th en reported and shown to have identified non-economic motives for WTP. The complexity of value formation and expression is found to go far beyond that generally accepted by economic models. Greater consideration of the role p layed by attitudes and ethical considerations then becomes relevant to the interpretation of results being used in standard cost-benefit analysis and environmental policy.