The decision-making process can be complex, especially for a governmental body whose choices directly impact the public it serves.

Interim Dean Thomas Jacobson is currently conducting research, with a $195,844 grant from the National Science Foundation, that examines how communication might change how an agency makes a decision that satisfies the public’s demands. In many cases, an agency will include public dialogue in a decision-making process and incorporate the input into its conclusion.

“While there is much advice from conflict resolution and public participation practitioners on how to do this well, there is little scientific understanding of how people judge the quality of these dialogues and how those judgments, in turn, affect the acceptance of decisions,” according to the project overview.

Jacobson and a team of researchers, led by Thomas Webler of the Social and Environmental Research Institute, are focusing on a series of public discussions led by the California Department of Fish and Game as it formulates a plan to comply with the Marine Life Protection Act and its requirement to redesign California’s system of protected marine areas.

The research team hopes to offer insight into how an agency can make decisions with “higher democratic legitimacy.”