Using Psychology to Inspire a Climate-Friendly Lifestyle
Motivating people to adopt impactful climate habits begins with understanding how they think.
KIMBERLY NICHOLAS, a sustainability scientist at Lund University in Sweden, felt a need to address her impact on the climate from her frequent flights across Europe. As a scientist, she took an analytical approach. Nicholas crunched the numbers — considering the time, cost, and emissions of different modes of travel. Her search through the data led to a lot of head-scratching, though.
When Nicholas realized that detailed calculations would not provide an answer, she talked to a colleague about his travel habits. Because he continued his career without flying, Nicholas decided she would do the same. Nicholas found herself drawn to this new lifestyle by taking trains across Europe and making extended stays when her schedule allowed. When in a pinch, she attended meetings virtually.
Nicholas understands she can make a limited difference as one person, especially someone who has never city-hopped on a private jet. Only governments and corporations can make an immediate impact. Still, with her scientific background, Nicholas knows enough individuals looking at their daily choices can affect climate change.
Getting enough people to change their habits is a challenge. Using human psychology to motivate rather than impede change is Nicholas’ focus. Limited energy and attention spans cause people to struggle even with minor changes. So, Nicholas pushes people to consider actions that have the most impact.
Most people understand human behaviors pose a threat to the climate. At the same time, they do not know what actions will most improve the situation. Recycling receives much media attention as a must-do to help the environment. Yet, people’s year-round efforts to sort their plastics make small gains compared to eliminating just one flight from someone’s work schedule. According to Nicholas’ research, avoiding one roundtrip transatlantic flight saves eight times more emissions than recycling for a year.
Experts generally agree that people’s attention should be focused on three impactful areas: diet (consuming more plant-based foods) and food waste (noting refrigerator stock), transportation (driving and flying less), and energy usage (considering products like electric vehicles and solar panels). Educating people about these areas is relatively easy, but convincing people to make changes is the hard part. People like to stick to a routine as over a third of one’s daily decisions are repeated. Things get even more complex when giving up something like a car. Cities grew outward because of personal vehicles, making one helpless without a Camry or an Accord. And mass transit is woefully short of widespread adoption because of the government’s failure to invest. Thankfully, according to Project Drawdown (an organization that quantifies the impact of potential climate solutions), less drastic changes will still greatly improve the climate.
Adjusting one’s diet is more doable, even though it may not be easy. People’s diets are usually consistent over their lifetimes. A standard diet in the United States consists of steaks and burgers — Americans consumed an average of 82 pounds of beef in 2020. Fortunately, psychology presents a chance to break such a rooted behavior. According to a study in the Journal of Environment Psychology, people are more likely to make behavioral changes during life-changing events. Disruptions to old habits (caused by moving to a new town, adjusting to a newborn, or getting married) make people more open to considering a new lifestyle. A prolonged break in someone’s routine allows one to make significant and lasting changes.
And still, a life-changing event will most likely not change behaviors considered part of a culture. Many people believe driving large vehicles is a sign of power and status. Eating meat is associated with masculinity across various cultures. Marketers even play to these cultural norms by creating advertisements reinforcing these popular beliefs.
And people feel far removed from this global problem. The impact of a single person’s action seems so tiny on the slow-moving effects of climate change. People who experience psychological distance struggle with understanding how giving up one steak will improve the environment for future generations. Experts agree high psychological hurdles are best overcome by making things personal.
People relate better to their daily lives rather than global affairs. Avoiding red meat for the heart benefits and saving money with solar panels make climate actions more sustainable. Personal gains feel more relatable than global gains. Stacking personal on top of global benefits provides an added nudge to make a lasting change.
These co-benefits improve someone’s perception of the cause. Perception plays two critical roles in behavioral change. First, a person must perceive that change is possible. Starting small will get someone over the initial psychological hurdles of breaking habits. One does not have to ride a bike 20 miles to work. Project Drawdown research shows that a third of needed climate improvements will result from individuals making better decisions. Better decisions include observing the expiration dates on spinach and avoiding extra trips to the grocery store.
Second, a person must perceive that change will have a positive impact. A person’s decisions seem trivial compared to the role of polluting corporations and world policymakers. And companies blame individuals for climate change rather than take responsibility for their actions. People feel more engaged in fighting corporations rather than taking personal responsibility. Fortunately, someone can do both. Purchasing an electric vehicle lowers carbon emissions and hurts a fossil fuel company’s bottom line.
An individual’s role is more significant than one would expect. People with higher incomes (anyone earning more than $38,000 make up the world’s top 10 percent) produce an impactful amount of emissions. The average American produces the equivalent of 20 tons of carbon dioxide per year — far exceeding the 2 tons required to contain global warming. A billionaire’s private jet and a factory’s smokestacks produce way more than your neighbor’s simple lifestyle. Still, everyone produces far too many emissions.
Social interactions play an important factor in positive actions spreading through communities. According to a study, people were more likely to install solar panels after someone did an installation in their same zip code. A single climate-friendly choice places positive peer influence on others to consider the same decision.
When enough people make changes, new social norms will start. More electric vehicle purchases begin to lower prices so others can afford them. Grocery stores change their product placement as more people eat less meat. A ripple of good decisions builds into a wave of change when positive feedback loops take place. This powerful exponential growth makes things seem like they happen overnight, even though it started years ago with one simple choice at a time.
