| How can trust between citizens and decision makers be increased? Over the last century, decision makers have tried a wide variety of participation techniques in an attempt to increase citizen trust in their agencies and achieve better resource management. In this study, several cases of natural resource decision making in Michigan were compared in order to determine what aspects of the decision making context affect citizen evaluations of the fairness of the process and outcome of decision making. Psychological theories of procedural and distributive justice were used to create measures of fairness. Contextual factors tested in the study included the agency conducting the participation, the characteristics of the citizens involved, and the nature of the decision making situation in terms of power distribution, intensity of conflict, and participation technique used. Predictions were made as to how citizen evaluations would influence the important consequence for the agency of trust in decision makers. Data to test the hypotheses were collected through 1550 mailed surveys to citizens and 455 surveys to agency decision makers. Descriptive, correlational and regression results largely confirmed the predicted relationships, showing that perceived fairness is affected by the decision making context. These results provide clear directions for decision makers and natural resource agencies that wish to build effective collaborative partnerships with citizens. |
