By Alaa Aldoh

Climate change is a pressing global issue with devastating effects on human life, animals, and the environment. On average, every year in the last 5 years has been the warmest year on record as a result of global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions have also driven other changes to the climate such as concentrated rain periods, droughts, and even colder weather than usual.

Despite overwhelming consensus among scientists about the reality of anthropogenic climate change (i.e., change arising from human activity), citizens and politicians remain reluctant to take the action needed to address it (Fielding, Hornsey, & Swim, 2014). My research has been focused on sustainable eating behaviours which be used as a tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock alone contributes to 14.5% of total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to emissions caused by transportation including all cars, trucks, planes, and ships on the planet combined (Gerber et al., 2013). Research has shown that switching to eco-friendly eating decisions such as opting for chicken, fish, or vegetables rather than red meat, could reduce the costs of climate change mitigation by as much as 50% by 2050 (de Boer, de Witt, & Aiking, 2016). The challenge lies in the ability to inform and persuade individuals to make more sustainable eating choices. Climate change, like other social problems, is complex and multifaceted. However, nearly every problem involves psychology.

There is a growing body of psychological research exploring ways to increase engagement in sustainable eating behaviours. One such way to address this issue utilizes social norms. Social norms have been successfully used as an effective tool for behaviour change when the behaviour in question is performed by a majority. However, when communicating an undesired behaviour performed by the majority, this often backfires, and actually increases individuals’ engagement in unwanted behaviour. So, what can we do when the majority of one’s group is actually performing the undesired behaviour?

In the past few years, two groups of researchers at separate universities explored ways in which presenting information about minority norms can positively affect people’s sustainable behaviours  (Mortensen et al., 2019; Sparkman & Walton, 2017). They found that conveying information about how the minority norm is changing has the potential to influence people and increase their engagement in desired behaviours only performed by the minority. They referred to these changing norms as dynamic/trending norms (examples from Mortensen et al., 2019):

Minority norm only

Research from (previous year) has found that 48% of (University name) students engage in one or more of the following water conservation behaviours:

• Turning off the water while soaping their hands during hand-washing
• Using low-flow shower heads
• Watering lawns and plants in the early morning or evening.

Trending minority norm

Research from (previous year) has found that 48% of (University name) students engage in one or more of the following water conservation behaviours:

• Turning off the water while soaping their hands during hand-washing
• Using low-flow shower heads
• Watering lawns and plants in the early morning or evening.

This has increased from 37% in (2 years previous).

Mortensen et al., (2019) found that when they presented a trending minority norm about water conservation behaviours, participants were much more likely to conserve water themselves in a subsequent task than participants who were presented a minority norm only.

Sparkman and Walton’s (2017) findings mirrored those findings in the domain of meat consumption. They ran a series of studies exploring the effects of portraying a “dynamic” minority norm (i.e. one that is changing) compared to a static minority norm (i.e. one that is fixed). Their results showed a consistent pattern where participants reading information about how the norm is changing reported higher interest in reducing their own meat consumption.

Both groups of researchers paved the way for a very interesting line of research looking at how positive minority behaviours can be encouraged and can be used as a lever to promote sustainable behaviours and fight climate change. As exciting as this sounds, there are many questions yet to be answered! What are the best ways to phrase normative information? What scalable norm interventions can be used to promote sustainable behaviours? What are the conditions of the effectiveness of dynamic/trending norms? Do dynamic/trending norms have a similar pattern of effects across different cultures? I have set out to answer some of these questions, and others to understand how conveying normative information about people’s sustainable behaviours can change others.

Be part of the change for a healthier Earth and Happy Earth Day!

For more info about diet and climate change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUnJQWO4YJY

Alaa Aldoh is a PhD student under the supervision of Dr Paul Sparks in the Social Psychology group. Her research studies how social psychology can influence people’s sustainable behaviours.