Narrative valuation in a policy judgment context

Much natural resource policy work stresses the importance of involving lay and expert stakeholders in a dialogue about environmental values pertaining to decisions about land management. To this end, there is growing interest in value elicitation techniques that: (a) provide alternatives to values expressed as willingness to pay formulas; and (b) do a good job of representing the many social, ethical, scientific, or economic value dimensions of a problem and linking those dimensions to the evaluation of a specific policy. Toward these objectives, this paper explores the technique of narrative valuation, that is, the act of situating a valuation and decision problem in the context of a narrated story. It reports on an experiment that tested a narrative-based representation of a problem against a utilitarian one (didactic text) to see which representation better served the decision process. The relative proficiency of both formats was tested in the context of a policy decision about the impact of hydroelectric power production on a river’s salmon population. The narrative technique appeared better able to help participants consider relevant value information such that they could apply that information to a complex policy judgment. Some reasons for the success of the narrative condition are discussed, including the technique’s capacity for engaging participants and rendering technical information salient. The paper closes with some recommendations for further tests of narrative-based valuation tools.