As mentioned in my very first introduction to the topic of behavior change for environmental conservation, effective behavior change requires a multi-faceted approach.
This approach involves 4 pillars to effective behavior change: psychology, communication, policy, and design.
And today, we are going to be diving into how psychology relates to behavior change.
How does psychology relate to behavior change?
Our actions are decided by how we think, feel, view the world, and emote.
The way I think the world works probably differs drastically from the way you think it works. Not because either of us is inherently right or wrong, but because we’ve lived different lives and our varying experiences have shaped how we see things.
Because of this, you and I will probably behave very differently as well.
Areas of study like cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, environmental psychology, and sociology all play a role in helping us understand the inner workings of the human mind, how environments and social circles affect us, and how all of this creates certain patterns in our behavior.
Before we can start trying to influence people’s actions, we have to understand what goes on between their ears and behind their eyes first.
Behavioral Economics and Choice Architecture
One common argument for the continued use of plastic is that plastic is cheap.
But is it really?
Throughout history, humans were thought to be logical creatures, making decisions based on reason and sense. The prevailing economic theory was that humans would consider all available information and act accordingly in their own best interest.
In typical human fashion though, we gave ourselves too much credit.
In the 1970s, two psychologies, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, began to research and explore the realistic decision-making process of humans.
This research evolved into what’s now known as behavioral economics.
Behavior Economics
Economics drives everything. It drives our day to day lives on a local, national, and global level. The reason why we have the politicians we have or the school systems we have or the environmental conflicts have can all be traced to economics.
According to the University of Chicago, behavioral economics is grounded in observations of human behavior that demonstrate that people do not always make the “rational” or “optimal” decision, even if they have the information and the tools available to do so.
For example, why do people often avoid exercising, even if they know that doing those things would benefit them? And why do gamblers often risk more after both winning and losing, even though the odds remain the same, regardless of “streaks”?
Or, more on topic, why do developed, resourced countries continue to pollute the environment even though it will be wildly more costly on both a national and international level down the road?
Behavioral economics recognizes that humans are, regardless of how educated we might be, subject to emotion and impulsivity and heavily influenced by environments and circumstances.
This means that in the United States decision-makers will likely keep funding and consumers in likely keep buying single-use plastics because in our minds the low immediate cost outweighs the long-term environmental costs.
It means that fishers will continue to overfish today even though it might mean that there are now fish tomorrow.
Ultimately though there are a wide variety of other potential influences that impact decision making need to be considered, including lack of time, lack of resources, or lack of understanding.
At the beginning of this section, I asked the question, is plastic really cheap? We are often told that it is. But rational thinking would disagree.
The environmental costs that come from plastic pollution, the oil and gas industry, and other such environmental issues are on track to be drastically more expensive over the course of time. It might be cheaper to buy a plastic-wrapped snack today, but how expensive will it be to remove plastic from our food or treat humans who get sick from plastic poisoning?
Sounds crazy to think about, right? But microplastic was already found in human blood and we are on track to having more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.
These problems are almost upon us making behavior economics more important than ever.
Choice Architecture and Nudging
From Making Shift Happen, choice architecture refers to the idea that our decisions are influenced by the context or environment in which the decision is made, including the way information is presented and described.
For example, have you ever noticed in grocery stores that all of the sugary and sweetest cereal is positioned at eye level for children?
Next time you go, take a look. You’ll probably find that the healthiest options can only be found on the highest or lowest racks.
Why?
Because grocery stores know that children will ask their parents for the tasty cereal and the best way to get them to ask is to put it front and center in front of them. This is choice architecture.
And one of the fundamental tools of choice architecture is nudging.
From the University of Chicago, behavioral economics, a “nudge” is a way to manipulate people’s choices to lead them to make specific decisions.
My mom, a doctor, decided to bring a bowl of fruit to her office every couple of days for people to snack on instead of the customary candy bowl. This was her way of “nudging” people to choice healthier snack options.
And it worked wonderfully well, to the point where I began to watch my inheritance dwindle as she bought more and more fruit for her teammates.
Jokes aside, one key difference between nudging and enforcement is that not coercive. If my mom had banned candy or docked pay if people didn’t eat her oranges, that would not have been a nudge.
Just like the ‘E’ of BEHAVIORAL Building Blocks, the easier something is for someone to do, the more likely they will do it.
For environmental conservation, nudging might look like charging people 50 cents for every plastic bag they use at the grocery store or giving discounts to people who walk or bike to a restaurant.
When used thoughtfully, nudges can be an extremely effective way to leverage behavioral economics for the behavior changes we wish to see.
In Conclusion
Understanding the psychology behind why we make the decisions we make is the first step to behavior change.
Designing effective environmental conservation solutions requires understanding enough about the human brain to be able to leverage common tendencies toward more sustainable actions.
Check out the next article to learn more about cognitive biases and how they pose a threat to the adoption of conservation behaviors.
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