Contrasting relational and instrumental values
Researchers from Natural Capital Singapore surveyed 501 university students in Singapore to assess whether they could distinguish between relational and instrumental values in practice.
Instrumental values are the values of nature that are determined based on the services and benefits that nature can provide for human beings, intrinsic values focus on values that nature has on its own, while relational values focus on values associated with human-nature interactions as well as social interactions between humans which involve nature.
Relational values have been proposed as a more inclusive alternative to instrumental and intrinsic values of nature. Although theoretically different, the empirical work to ascertain whether relational values are in practice different to instrumental values has been scarce.
Considering the uncertainties pertaining to the practical interpretation of relational values compared to instrumental values, Sin Ching See from the National University of Singapore, external page Shaikh Fairul Edros, external page Dr Wanggi Jaung, and external page Prof. Roman Carrasco from the external page Natural Capital Singapore project conducted a study using correlational and factor analyses to ascertain the overlap between instrumental and relational values as well as identify the factors that correlate with relational and instrumental values using Singapore as a case study.
The researchers surveyed 501 university students in Singapore to assess whether they could practically distinguish between relational and instrumental values of several parks and also to identify correlates of their value scores.
The results from the survey showed that relational and instrumental values are nearly indistinguishable in practice for the respondents. The researchers also found that factors such as personality, the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) related to concern with a future ecological crises and fond childhood memories associated with nature contributed to the high scores in instrumental and relational values.
The results from the study call for an urgent expansion of the empirical evidence base of relational values to inform their conceptualization.
The paper external page "Are relational values different in practice to instrumental values?" was published in Ecosystem Services.