Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
In response to emerging insights into the more-
than-rational constitution of human behaviour a
new set of environmental policies have emerged.
These policies, which have been emerging largely
over the last 10 years, are often referred to as
pro-
environmental behaviour changing policies
. These
new policies have drawn on the insights of behav-
ioural economics and behavioural psychology (as
well as a range of other ideas taken from fields as
diverse as cognitive design and neuroeconomics,
see
Table 8.2).
Collectively, these policies have been
designed to change the behavioural norms that
have emerged as part of our mass consumption
societies (see Jackson, 2005) and to encourage
humans to reduce the demands that they place on
the biosphere. But, as we will see, the long-term
effectiveness of these policies is coming under
increasing levels of critical scrutiny.
For more on the use of psychological
insights in the design of public policy go
to:
This blog reports the findings of a three-
year Leverhulme Trust research project
on behaviour change. The blog draws
particular attention to the ethical issues
that are associated with such policies.
in which we live makes it difficult to act sustainably.
We explore these ideas in greater detail in the
section that follows, but for now it is important to
recognize that there are some significant ethical
issues associated with the development of
environmental policies that draw on the insights
of psychological persuasion.
behaviour change
Intellectual influences
Modes of operation
Behavioural economics
Non-conscious priming
Behavioural psychology
Intelligent assignment
Cognitive design
Presumed consent
Engineering psychology
Mandated choices
Ethology
Anchoring
Intuitive judgement theory
Culture change
Material psychology
Channelling factors
Neuroeconomics
Collaborative filtering
Neuropsychology preference theory
Disclosure
Psychographics
Feedback
Social cognition
Self-registered control strategies
Social influence theory
Peer-to-peer pressure
Social marketing
Norm formation
Theories of affect
Choice editing
Time preference theories
Default positions
User centred design
Social marketing
Visual perception theory
