{"id":921,"date":"2020-04-22T17:04:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T17:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/?p=921"},"modified":"2020-04-24T10:11:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T10:11:36","slug":"how-can-sustainable-behaviours-be-encouraged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2020\/04\/22\/how-can-sustainable-behaviours-be-encouraged\/","title":{"rendered":"How can sustainable behaviours be encouraged?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Alaa Aldoh<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is a pressing global issue with devastating\neffects on human life, animals, and the environment. On average, every year in\nthe last 5 years has been the warmest year on record as a result of global\nwarming. Greenhouse gas emissions have also driven other changes to the climate\nsuch as concentrated rain periods, droughts, and even colder weather than\nusual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>). 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<\/a>). 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<\/a>). 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 engagement in unwanted behaviour. So, what can we do when the majority of one\u2019s group is actually performing the undesired behaviour?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s sustainable behaviours  (Mortensen et al., 2019<\/a>; Sparkman & Walton, 2017<\/a>). They found that conveying information about how the minority norm is changing<\/em> 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<\/a>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minority norm only<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Research from (previous year) has\nfound that 48% of (University name) students engage in one or more of the\nfollowing water conservation behaviours:<\/p>\n\n\n\n