Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Today, we have a question from one of our reporters, Kolya Shields. What do you have for us, Kolya?
Kolya Shields: I’ve learned so many great tips about saving energy and addressing climate change during my time at Possibly! But it’s hard to convince my friends to try something new, and sometimes even I forget to unplug my electronics or bring my reusable bags to the store.
So I was wondering, are there research-based ways to change our behaviors?
Megan Hall: We had CharlieAdams from our Possibly team help Kolya look into it. Welcome, Charlie and Kolya!
Charlie Adams: Hi, Megan!
Kolya Shields: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, how do we convince people to make climate-conscious decisions?
Kolya Shields: Well, it’s complicated! There’s a whole field of science dedicated to how people make decisions, behavioral science. To learn more, I spoke to Caroly Shumway:
Caroly Shumway: “I’m the director of the Center for Behavior and Climate”
Charlie Adams: She says behavioral science is
Caroly Shumway: “the collective term for those scientific disciplines seeking to understand the causes of individual group and organizational behavior”
Megan Hall: So what does this have to do with climate change?
Charlie Adams: Caroly says that climate change is not just a ‘science’ problem, but a people problem too. The science about our greenhouse gasses warming the planet has been clear for decades, but our behaviors and policies haven’t caught up.
Megan Hall: What can we do about that?
Kolya Shields: Caroly says much of our individual behavior is heavily influenced by habits. And…
Caroly Shumway: “It’s a challenge to change habits. All of us know how many new year’s resolutions fail… you have to do that habit, try that new thing, probably for… two weeks, maybe a month before it… solidifies”
Megan Hall: Ok, so once I get into a groove it gets much easier to remember to do things like take the bus and turn off the lights when I leave a room. But how do I make sure I don’t forget or quit?
Charlie Adams: Well, of course, there’s no perfect fix, but one helpful way to think about decision-making is through ‘social norms.’
Kolya Shields: For example, Caroly says framing sustainable habits as a popular choice, a trend, makes it easier for people to change their behavior.
Charlie Adams: This approach can have a big impact. For example, researchers at Stanford looked at how student eating habits changed after they read different anti-meat arguments.
Megan Hall: What did they learn?
Kolya Shields: Messages that said people have turned away from meat in the last 5 years were much more successful than vague statements about people eating less meat.
Megan Hall: How do I put that lesson into practice?
Kolya Shields: See if you can decide on a choice that your friend group can try together. When you have other people to hold you accountable and remind you why this change is important, it’s much easier to build new habits!
Megan Hall: Can we use these strategies on a larger scale?
Kolya Shields: Caroly says if you want to influence behaviors, incentives are much more effective than punishments.
Caroly: “if you can enable choice, and you make the better choice more available or more accessible, you’re more likely to increase change for the better than if you take a hard line.”
Charlie Adams: The way we talk about the climate is important too! Research shows messages that emphasize the economic and social benefits of addressing climate change, like new jobs in the green economy, increased the likelihood that people made more sustainable choices.
Caroly: “People already believe climate change is real… So we have to, rather than make people feel a sense of apathy and despair, give people a sense that things are getting better”
Charlie Adams: It’s also important to remember that no amount of personal behavior change can solve this problem by itself – climate change will require fundamental policy changes, and there is only so much we can do as individuals.
Kolya Shields: But on the flip side, policies don’t come from nowhere, they come from people. So talk to the people in your life about changes you can both try, the positive impact those actions make, and remember that people across the world are making similar changes every day! It’s not just a fun thing to do — it’s Behavioral Science!
Megan Hall: Thanks, Kolya and Charlie!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
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Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.