Available online
Description
What would convince you to change your lifestyle and use less energy? Despite more people than ever knowing about climate change, few actually do much to minimise their environmental impact. Why ar...e people so reluctant to change their ways and how can they be persuaded?Claudia Hammond looks at the psychology of saving the planet through the science of persuasion and the subtle techniques which might get us all to behave differently. She is joined in the studio by two guests, Simon Retallack from the British think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research which has produced a detailed report on how to get British people to adopt six chosen behaviours to minimise environmental impact, and Professor of Psychology Alan Kazdin from Yale University who recently gave an address to the American Psychological Association on the role of psychology in climate change.Among the conclusions of the discussions and research are that more information about Climate Change is not effective in making people change behaviour - instead techniques that use financial incentives, fashion and fun are more likely to succeed.Professor Noah Goldstein from the University of California at Los Angeles reports on his own successful trial using persuasion to make people in hotels re-cycle their towels. By changing the wording in hotel rooms he increased re-cycling of towels by 33 per cent. If people are given information that lets them know that other people in the room before them re-cycled towels they tend to want to do the same. If they are only told that recycling towels will help the environment far fewer people choose to re-cycle.
What would convince you to change your lifestyle and use less energy? Despite more people than ever knowing about climate change, few actually do much to minimise their environmental impact. Why ar...e people so reluctant to change their ways and how can they be persuaded?Claudia Hammond looks at the psychology of saving the planet through the science of persuasion and the subtle techniques which might get us all to behave differently. She is joined in the studio by two guests, Simon Retallack from the British think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research which has produced a detailed report on how to get British people to adopt six chosen behaviours to minimise environmental impact, and Professor of Psychology Alan Kazdin from Yale University who recently gave an address to the American Psychological Association on the role of psychology in climate change.Among the conclusions of the discussions and research are that more information about Climate Change is not effective in making people change behaviour - instead techniques that use financial incentives, fashion and fun are more likely to succeed.Professor Noah Goldstein from the University of California at Los Angeles reports on his own successful trial using persuasion to make people in hotels re-cycle their towels. By changing the wording in hotel rooms he increased re-cycling of towels by 33 per cent. If people are given information that lets them know that other people in the room before them re-cycled towels they tend to want to do the same. If they are only told that recycling towels will help the environment far fewer people choose to re-cycle.
| Series: | Climate connections |
|---|---|
| First transmission date: | 2009-12-14 |
| Original broadcast channel: | BBC World Service |
| Published: | 2009 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:28:00 |
| Note: | BBC World Service version |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Sue Broom |
| Presenter: | Claudia Hammond |
| Contributors: | Claudia Hammond; Alan Kazdin; Simon Retallack; Noah Goldstein |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Production number: | AUDA758B |
| Available to public: | no |
