Relational values and empathy are closely connected: A study of residents of Vermont's Winooski River watershed

• Published in: Ecology and society Vol. 27; no. 3; p. 19
• Main Authors: Hagen, Eric J., Gould, Rachelle K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ottawa Resilience Alliance 01-09-2022
• Subjects: Behavior; Biodiversity; biodiversity loss; Climate change; conservation; Ecosystem services; Emotions; Empathy; environmental decision-making; Environmental economics; environmental ethics; Environmental policy; environmental valuation; perspective-taking; Political platform; relational values; Residents; Social psychology; Sustainability; transformative change; Valuation; Values; Watersheds; Vermont; Winooski River; United States > US
• ISSN: 1708-3087; 1708-3087
• DOI: 10.5751/ES-13406-270319

Relational values are emerging as an important aspect of ecosystem valuation scholarship and practice. Yet, relatively few empirical examples of their expression exist in the literature. In addition, many characteristics of relational values suggest that they may interact with the quality of empathy, but scholars have not explored that interaction. To address both of these gaps, we designed a semi-structured interview protocol to explore relational values among residents of a large (~28,000 ha) watershed in Vermont, United States of America. We used thematic analysis to explore expressions of relational values and how they may relate to empathy. We discuss how relational values interact with empathy and perspective-taking, as the latter two concepts are theorized in social psychology. In our study, every reference (discrete codable expression) of empathy among our participants co-occurred with a relational-values reference. Conversely, 21% of relational-values references co-occurred with empathy. These results support our proposition that the two concepts are closely related, and we thus argue that there is strong reason to consider empathy as a relational value. We conclude by discussing possible implications of the interaction between relational values and empathy for research and practice, notably their promise for informing the global transformative changes regarding sustainable human–nature relationships called for by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.