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

Do Individual Green Actions Take Away From Systems Change? Karine Lacroix PhD Ep71

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Nov 6, 2023

Environmental and behavioral psychologist, Karine Lacroix PhD, discusses whether individual eco-friendly behaviors hinder systems-wide change. She explores spillover effects, measures behavior outcomes, and emphasizes normative goals like reducing meat consumption. The impact of meat consumption on the environment is highlighted, considering cultural reasons and preferences. Negative spill-over effects and self-efficacy are explored, along with communication strategies and framing environmental messages for motivation. Designing programs and systems to facilitate desired behaviors is discussed, focusing on context and social influences.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

Exploring the Conflict Between Individual Action and Systems Change

02:40 • 3min

Spillover Effects and Environmental Identity

05:48 • 16min

Measuring behavior outcomes and the concept of normative goals

21:48 • 2min

The Impact of Meat Consumption on the Environment

23:24 • 21min

Exploring Negative Spill-Over and Self-Efficacy in Individual Actions

44:49 • 2min

Framing environmental messages for motivation and action

47:06 • 4min

Designing Programs for Behavior Change

51:13 • 22min

In today’s episode, I talk with environmental and behavioral psychologist, Dr. Karine Lacroix Ph.D, about if a person’s individual eco-friendly behaviors (like riding a bike, composting, or eating less meat) can cannibalize or steer people away from taking actions that might influence bigger systems-wide change (like trying to influence your local Mayor, or meeting with a senator. Think of it like this. Does directing people reduce their own environmental impact for themselves (just one person) reduce that person’s potential to do actions that might affect other people beyond themselves (many people)? Does the effort or bandwidth involved with one trade off the other? Karine focuses on experiments that target the barriers and motivators around climate change behavior and health. She was a post-doctoral associate at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication is now an Advisor to the Behavioral Insights Team (also known as the Nudge Unit or BTI). We will dive into her recently published paper titled “Does personal climate change mitigation behavior inﬂuence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States.” * * * How to Save the World is a podcast about the psychology of what gets people to do eco-behaviors and take 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 rapidly get more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at ⁠⁠⁠http://katiepatrick.com⁠⁠⁠ Join Gamify the Planet masterclass training in climate action design for $25/month ⁠⁠⁠http://katiepatrick.com/gamifytheplanet⁠⁠⁠ Get a copy of the book, How to Save the World on Amazon ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/2Z4jivL⁠⁠⁠ Follow Katie on: Instagram ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/katiepatrickhello/⁠ LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-patrick/