How to Save the World | The Psychology & Science of Environmental Behavior

The Secret of How Individual Actions Lead To Tipping Points, Professor Jan Willem Bolderdijk Ep27

14 snips

Nov 1, 2021

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

You Can't Change the World Through Individual Behavior

Is There a Momentum in Social Change?

How Much Do You Need to Tip the Whole System?

What's the Percentage of People Wanting Things Differently?

How Long Have People Been Putting on Solar Roofs?

Is There a Way to Speed Up Government Policy?

What Policy Can Interact With Norms?

Is Everything a Behavior?

Do Moral Rebels Elicit These Social Sanctions?

Moral Dugoot, I'm Not Morally Perfect, I Need to Improve My Behaviour

Do You Have Personal Responsibility?

Why You Shouldn't Critiquate the Environment

Why Isn't Climate Change All Your Fault?

The Power of Social Interaction in Propagating Change

What's a Social Cost?

Is There a Convention to a Plan Base Diet?

Is There a Role of Ridicule in Change?

What's the Difference Between Plan Based Lunches?

How Can We Overcome Social Sanctions?

How to Change Your Behavior

Are You Socially Awkward?

Social Marketing Incentives for Electric Vehicle Owners

Are You Talking About Things to Groups?

Are You Getting Locked in to Social Norms?

01:01:11 • 4min

Do We Need More Plan Based Alternatives in the Market?

01:05:01 • 3min

Just Talk About Climate Change in a Group

01:08:09 • 3min

I've Never Thought About It, but That's an Interesting Lens to to See It Through

01:11:21 • 2min

How to Track Long Term Effects of Individual Actions?

01:13:00 • 5min

Do individual behaviors make a difference?

We are often asked to take personal action to help the planet like eating less meat and riding more bikes—but many decree individual behavior as limited and naive in the face of powerful companies and governments. So, how does mass change really come about? There’s more to it than a simple individual-vs-system dichotomy.

The core mechanism of how change unfolds through societies is by people — our sensitivities to groups, perceptions, trends, and imitation and the social trends that are passed from human to human that lead to bigger systems changes such as laws, taxes, technologies, and urban design, are carried on the back of human behaviors.

Jan Willem Bolderdijk is an associate professor and researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He studies how small groups of people influence bigger systems with respect to sustainability and climate change.

Jan's research papers here:

Minority influence in climate change mitigation

“How do you know someone's vegan?” They won't always tell you. An empirical test of the do-gooder's dilemma

Why going green feels good

How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action.

Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to get magnitudes more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at katiepatrick.com

Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon

This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action. You might enjoy joining their communities and events.

Contribute a monthly donation at patreon.com/katiepatrick to help me continue to make these episodes possible. Thank you to Jordan, Nader, Mike, Gary, Alex, Ben, Dee, and Ian for contributing! Xx

Follow on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, and LinkedIn

Book a 90-minute idea-storming call with me: https://buy.stripe.com/8wM8yS92c0mg1q07ss