Do social identity and cognitive diversity correlate in environmental stakeholders? A novel approach to measuring cognitive distance within and between groups.

Payam Aminpour,Steven Gray,Heike Schwermer,Henrik Österblom

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244907

Abstract

Groups with higher cognitive diversity, i.e. variations in how people think and solve problems, are thought to contribute to improved performance in complex problem-solving. However, embracing or even engineering adequate cognitive diversity is not straightforward and may even jeopardize social inclusion. In response, those that want to promote cognitive diversity might make a simplified assumption that there exists a link between identity diversity, i.e. range of social characteristics, and variations in how people perceive and solve problems. If this assumption holds true, incorporating diverse identities may concurrently achieve cognitive diversity to the extent essential for complex problem-solving, while social inclusion is explicitly acknowledged. However, currently there is a lack of empirical evidence to support this hypothesis in the context of complex social-ecological systems—a system wherein human and environmental dimensions are interdependent, where common-pool resources are used or managed by multiple types of stakeholders. Using a fisheries example, we examine the relationship between resource stakeholders’ identities and their cognitive diversity. We used cognitive mapping techniques in conjunction with network analysis to measure cognitive distances within and between stakeholders of various social types (i.e., identities). Our results empirically show that groups with higher identity diversity also demonstrate more cognitive diversity, evidenced by disparate characteristics of their cognitive maps that represent their understanding of fishery dynamics. These findings have important implications for sustainable management of common-pool resources, where the inclusion of diverse stakeholders is routine, while our study shows it may also achieve higher cognitive coverage that can potentially lead to more complete, accurate, and innovative understanding of complex resource dynamics.

Highlights

Diversity is a term generally used to identify differences between individuals or describe instances of being composed of differing elements or including different qualities
In all five socially distinguishable groups of stakeholders (Fig 3A–3E) the mean of inter-group cognitive distances is longer than the mean of intra-group cognitive distances, and in three groups (i.e., Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), tourism, and experts) these differences are statistically significant at the level of p < 0.05
The results of nonparametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U test further supported the findings that the mean of inter-group cognitive distances was statistically significantly larger than the mean of intra-group distances (p = 0.04), even if the the normality assumptions were violated

Summary

Introduction

Diversity is a term generally used to identify differences between individuals or describe instances of being composed of differing elements or including different qualities. Depending on the type of differences by which the diversity is determined, people can be categorized under demographic, cultural, political, occupational, intellectual, or many other categories. Identity diversity— known as surface-level diversity—refers to differences in a set of subjective characteristics that are apparent across individuals or groups [2]. Many social categories or deductive specifications that are explicitly defined by demographic, socioeconomic, cultural, political, or any other salient features of the individuals fall into identity diversity. These are factors that are generally considered observable (think demographic categories), and often perceptible by those who seek or care about diversity and inclusion [4]

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Discussion

Conclusion