A psychological trick to turn people green: show how environmentalism will help their own goals

By Alex Fradera  How do you get people to act in a climate friendly manner? The received wisdom is to push the basic message that climate change is real, humans have a hand in it, and we must mitigate it through action. But this approach hits a wall when people are disposed against that goal ideologically or because they simply don’t care enough. New research in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests another strategy: encourage environmental behaviours by linking them to goals that are already personally important. Kerrie Unsworth from the University of Leeds and Ilona McNeill from the University of Melbourne contacted 183 working adults who commuted in private vehicles, and asked them to imagine that their company was closing their car park to extend their premises, offering as compensation a public transport subsidy. In one condition, the decision was justified exclusively on environmental grounds, pointing out the benefits of reducing traffic density and jams, as well as increasing the proportion of energy-efficient vehicles on the road. Asked how they would react to the proposal, these participants responded much like those in a control condition where no justifications were given at all: with muted enthusiasm, and by saying they planned to persist with a car commute despite the obstacles. But other participants responded much more positively. They’d read a justification for the car park closure that was not exclusively focused on the environment, but was a...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: environmental Social Source Type: blogs