Alia Dietsch's research primarily focuses on applying social science theories and methodologies to 1) conservation decision-making and 2) natural resource, parks and protected area management. She relies upon a social psychological approach to understand how people think and behave in various contexts (e.g., human-wildlife conflict, conservation support).

A few example research questions she has investigated include: how does human thought affect public support (or lack thereof) for natural resource management actions? How does demographic shift affect the composition of values across time and space, and what can that tell us about the future of conservation decision-making? Increasingly, Alia uses multilevel modeling to explore individual- and group-level dynamics inherent to a world of complexity.