Building on legitimacy and environmentalism literature, we advance the understanding of individual-level legitimacy (propriety) judgment formation in complex contexts with multiple, potentially conflicting validity cues. Through conjoint experiments generating 3,952 propriety judgments nested within 247 individuals, we examine how multiple cues - public opinion, economic impact, regulatory setting, and venture longevity - along with evaluators’ environmental values, shape propriety judgments in the context of fracking. Our study contributes to the legitimacy-as-perception literature in two key ways. First, we show that propriety judgments emerge from the simultaneous interpretation of multiple cues, cautioning against examining cues in isolation, which may produce misleading conclusions. Second, we reveal that propriety judgments are contingent upon evaluators’ personal values. Stronger environmental values weaken the impact that validity cues have on propriety judgments.
