How Can Psychology Save the Planet? Bringing Behavior Change Science to Conservation
By Amy Bucher, Ph.D.
Did you know that the palm oil found in many of our lotions and cosmetics comes from the natural habitat of orangutans? Harvesting the oil damages their habitats and puts the animals at risk. Or that about a third of the calories grown in the world go to waste? Or that the equivalent of one dump truck of plastic enters the ocean ever minute? I didn’t, but the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and others are actively tackling these issues. These are all thorny, complex problems that require sustained behavior change to solve. Yet, historically, very little behavior change science — and even less behavior change design theory — has been applied to conservation efforts.
That’s starting to change, thanks to work by the WWF, National Geographic, and others who recognize the need to apply the science of psychology to their efforts to save the planet. I had the honor of participating in the WWF’s annual Fuller Symposium on December 4–5 in Washington DC. The 2017 theme was “The Nature of Change: The Science of Influencing Behavior.” Speakers included experts in both social and environmental sciences, so the audience heard about theories of behavior change alongside case studies bringing those same theories to life.
In my presentation, I covered the psychology of motivation and the importance of respecting people’s autonomy — their ability to make meaningful choices for themselves — in designing behavior change interventions. I used the example of smoking cessation in the United States to show how behavior change tactics can be applied at the individual, group, and societal level in a way that preserves autonomy and yields meaningful results.
Like health and financial behavior change, sustainability behaviors often require short-term sacrifice for long-term benefit. That can make behavior change challenging, especially when you’re asking people to do something that ultimately may help a future generation rather than themselves. Moreover, there is no universal morality associated with conservation; while values-based appeals work well for some audiences, they’re off-putting to others. As we wrestled with the dilemma of how to inspire greener behaviors across a variety of domains, common themes from speakers included:
The role of identity and values
When we see a behavior as consistent with something we really care about, we’re more likely to experience a form of autonomous motivation. That’s the good type that leads to long-term behavior changes. So, recasting conservation behaviors as supporting personal goals or identity is one way to help people buy in to and maintain change. Gayle Burgess of TRAFFIC shared a case study of the Chi campaign they launched in Vietnam in 2014 to reduce demand for rhino horns. Marketing outreach re-associated values of masculinity and success with inner character rather than possession of rhino horns.
Values don’t necessarily have to be so lofty, however. Sometimes it’s about our immediate goals. Other speakers, like Elspeth Kirkman of the Behavioural Insights Team talked about understanding consumer objectives as a key to changing their behaviors. If a shopper is looking for convenience and speed, then you may be able to reduce their red meat consumption by offering vegetable-based alternatives that meet that goal as well as a steak does. The general challenge before us is to associate “good” behaviors with what people already care about, and this requires us to talk to people to understand their goals and objectives.
Behavior change is a systems issue
No one lives in a vacuum. Our behaviors are influenced — and often, determined — by the environments in which we live. Therefore, making sustained changes to behavior requires considering those systems. Dr. Jeni Cross of the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University shared a toolkit to approach behavior change across touchpoints for maximum efficacy. Kirkman from the Behavioral Insights Team followed up with a case study of reducing red meat consumption, showing how considering different consumer barriers and facilitators across the many touchpoints in the food system enable more effective interventions.
Dr. Nicole Ardoin of Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment made a key point that not only are the determinants of behavior complex, so is behavior itself. There is no one behavior that equates to “sustainability.” Rather, there is a suite of sustainable behaviors and people may do well with some but not with others. Considering behaviors more discretely gives us a better ability to influence them and measure change. In fact, we had the chance to do just that in the Day 2 workshops where participants wrestled with intervention design across a variety of specific sustainability issues, including food waste, recycling, and the ivory trade.
Finally, several of the speakers, including Ardoin, Sarilani Wirawan of Rare, and me shared examples where community involvement is a key ingredient to individual behavior change. We are social animals. Our behavior reflects that.
Empathy is a change agent
The human brain is built for stories. A sense of empathy can drive not just feeling but action (which is one reason why we practice human-centered design at Mad*Pow). Speakers at the Fuller Symposium demonstrated other powerful ways to elicit empathy in order to change behaviors. Ronan Donovan, a photographer and filmmaker from National Geographic Explorer, shared his images of Max the chimpanzee to bring home the heart-tugging potential of visual imagery plus story.
Dr. Jeremy Bailenson of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University researches how virtual reality technology can make those far-off future outcomes feel viscerally close, changing attitudes and behaviors in the process. He made the point that while experiencing a climate change-related disaster can make people believe in climate change, a VR simulation can have a similar effect without the tragedy. And Dr. Beth Karlin’s work at the SEE Change Institute works on influencing behavior through popular television and film media. The upshot? When we seek to change people’s behavior, we need to think beyond just persuasive argumentation to other, creative methods of communication.
Speaking of . . . after tasting a cookie whose secret ingredient was London fog from the Center for Genomic Gastronomy, I’m that much more aware of how air quality might affect my health. Let’s just say Thin Mints have nothing to worry about.
We don’t always need agreement
It’s important to realize that other people may not share our way of thinking, and so the arguments that we find persuasive may fall flat with others. As I mentioned, one big example that many speakers mentioned is that “green values” aren’t universal. The good news is, bringing people around to our way of thinking is often unnecessary and may be counterproductive for behavior change. What’s really important is bringing them around to our way of doing.
As keynote Dr. Dan Ariely pointed out, it doesn’t necessarily matter why someone decides to change their behaviors if they arrive at the same endpoint we do. Julie Ipe of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves illustrated this with her organization’s efforts to drive adoption of clean cooking fuels. Guess what was an effective change agent in Kenya? Not fact-based argument, but rather a reality cooking competition show called Shamba Chef that shows how great meals can be made on clean cookstoves and offers them as desirable prizes. Similarly, Sarilani Wirawan recounted how the most effective change agent to reduce non-sustainable fishing in Indonesia was not rational explanation, but the influence of the community’s women. Fishermen practice more sustainable fishing not because they care about conservation, but because they care about placating their family members.
A world of possibility
In her closing remarks, Dr. Rebecca Shaw, the chief science officer of WWF, noted that just as there are a variety of environmental sciences, so too are there a variety of social sciences. What’s exciting about Dr. Shaw’s point coupled with the objective of this year’s Fuller Symposium is that we have a huge range of problems to work on (and the attendant expertise to understand them) coupled with an extensive toolkit of strategies to apply. And thanks to this event, we’re building bridges between the two sets of disciplines so that those collaborations can begin in a serious way. I personally left the symposium energized with the possibilities before us and excited to pursue projects in service of sustainable behaviors.
Learn more
All of the presentations from the Fuller Symposium are available to view online:
