In this article we investigate licensing behavior across and within sustainability domains. In a survey study based on a random sample of residents of the state of Maine, USA (N = 668), we find that an individual’s choice in a future policy scenario was significantly impacted by recalling his/her own previous sustainable behavior. We find evidence of domain-specific licensing in the energy realm, where individuals who participated in past sustainable energy behaviors are less likely to support a proposed public policy investment in energy efficiency/renewable energy. We employ a novel environmental motivation scale and determine that licensing impacts are mediated by an individual’s internal environmental motivation. Our results suggest that care must be taken in how we encourage sustainable behavior, without triggering licensing.

We investigate allocation of funds by citizens across management options addressing impairments to coastal water quality. We study systematic variation in citizen allocation of funds to adaptive versus preventative strategies including the impact of referundum choices and test whether allocations will be impacted by cuing in the design of the referendum. Two key policy insights from our results: citizens who vote no on a water quality referendum have different preferences over allocating funds and providing cues to voters influenced allocation behavior. These results can assist decision makers in thinking about language used to communicate coastal water quality issues, particularly budget referenda.

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse class of synthetic fluorinated chemicals also referred to as “forever chemicals.” The release of these chemicals into the environment presents an urgent, emerging threat to human and environmental health. Decision-makers seeking to address a variety of PFAS-related issues need better understanding of citizens’ knowledge of PFAS contamination and their preferences for managing the issue. To provide this vital information, we analyze data from a survey of Maine citizens. We assess Maine residents’ baseline knowledge of PFAS contamination, as well as their preferences for generation and allocation of funds to address PFAS contamination in Maine.

Increasingly, scientists are reaching out to individuals and entities once considered “users” of scientific knowledge to engage them in the research process due to the increased need for contextualized knowledge. However, these increased interactions make apparent the boundaries that exist between the parties interested in sustainability science. Divergent values and attitudes amongst researchers and between researchers and stakeholders may preclude effective communication and collaboration when individuals screen information due to their perceptions of those who generated the information. The current work contributes to the complexity of environmental communication in the decision making sphere, by considering whether expressions of personal value, such as environmental worldviews, may influence the processing of knowledge and information sharing across interdisciplinary research and researcher–stakeholder boundaries. This work includes a unique opportunity to consider not only empirical data, but interactions and implications within a research community and with the public.