WAKE-UP CALL
Welcome to the September 2009 Wake-Up Call, Awake’s
monthly newsletter for research and news about behaviour change for
sustainability.
To view this newsletter as a webpage, click here
In this edition of Wake-up Call…
·
Feature Article – Doing It For The Money
·
Workshop Report – Cultivating Sustainability in New
Zealand
·
Interesting Article of the Month – Stress That Doesn’t Pay: The
Commuting Paradox
·
60 seconds with… Audua Castledine-Ruiz from Green Pages
·
Exercise of the Month – Does the Motive Make a Difference?
Feature
Article – Doing It For The Money
For
a large percentage of individuals and organisations, the most compelling case
for engaging in environmentally sustainable behaviours is to save money, or
make money. For that reason, the most
popular green initiatives appear to be the ones where it can be demonstrated
that it will be good for the bottom line.
Changing to energy efficient light bulbs, for instance, is one such
measure. Making a house more draft resistant in order to save on heating costs
is another.
At
corporate level, leaders often need to see the dollar benefits prior to signing
off on green initiatives. Preferably
these benefits take the form of cold hard cash savings, but there is increasing
recognition of the importance to the balance sheet of good corporate
citizenship and employee attractiveness.
This
raises the question – does money work effectively as a motivator for green
behaviours, and under which circumstances?
There
is a fair amount of evidence which suggests that, yes,
financial considerations do have an impact on our behaviour when it comes to
the environment. A 2005
review of research into household energy savings found that, by and large,
measures such as providing monetary rewards for electricity savings have proved
to be successful. Fluctuations in petrol
prices have also proven to be a powerful motivator for seeking alternatives
to driving to work, providing further evidence of the impact of money on our
decisions.
There
are, however, a number of limitations to the so-called “rational-economic
model”, which assumes that people’s engagement in certain behaviours is determined
by whether or not it is in their financial interests to do so. For instance, the 2005
review outlined above found that, although financial incentives showed
success for initial engagement in sustainable behaviours, the effects were
often short-lived. These findings were
echoed by De
Young, who found that the effects of incentives often wore off when the
financial reinforcement was discontinued.
Another
review, by Gonzales,
examined the ineffectiveness of a large-scale energy audit program in the
There
is also a strong body of evidence which suggests that our reason for
adopting green behaviours will influence the degree to which we stick with them
in the long term. This theory contends
that, when we make a green choice for the sake of the environment (rather than
just money), we are more likely to see ourselves as pro-environment, and
therefore more likely to adopt similar behaviours which will help reinforce
this perception of ourselves. This
effect has been demonstrated in relation to social responsibility by Burger
and Caldwell, who observed that “Participants given $1 to sign a
homelessness petition were less likely to see themselves as
altruistic than participants not given the monetary incentive. The paid
participants also complied less often with a request to work on a canned food
drive 2 days later than unpaid participants”.
Therefore,
if our aim is to promote a range of pro-environment behaviours by providing an
initial incentive to get people started, we may find that indeed the target
behaviour increased, but there is no evidence to suggest that this will spill
over to other green behaviours (something discussed at length in the WWF
article Simple
and Painless)
There
are a couple of areas where the provision or emphasis of a financial incentive
can have a worthwhile effect on increasing the uptake of green behaviour.
The
first is where we want people to take a single action in order to reduce their
ongoing impact on the planet. For
example, an incentive to purchase a more energy efficient appliance or vehicle
will have lasting effects, even if the purchase behaviour itself is short-term. In this case, we are unlikely to be concerned
with the reason for the purchase, and whether any change in attitude occurred –
just getting people to undertake that one green purchasing
behaviour is the sole purpose.
The
second way in which an incentive can play an important role in promoting
sustainable behaviour is by acting as a disruptor of habitual behaviour. Habits are held in place by stable, recurring
conditions which make it easy for us to perform the behaviour without thinking
or weighing up the pros and cons each time.
It has been demonstrated that a disruption to those conditions can be
enough to cause us to re-examine our habitual behaviour, and potentially trial
and adopt a new, more sustainable habit.
A change in the “pay-off” may be enough to serve as a disruptor, as demonstrated in a study by Fujii
& Kitamura , who found that providing a free one-month bus ticket to drivers
led to a significant and sustained increase in bus use among those
drivers. In this case, the purpose of
the incentive is to provide a stimulus to encourage a trial of a new behaviour,
rather than as an ongoing reinforcer of that behaviour.
To
summarise, financial incentives appear to have some value in triggering short
term changes in behaviour. Where the short term is enough to satisfy our aim, either by
encouraging an immediate behaviour which has a long-term effect, or by
activating a trial of a new behaviour, then financial incentives are a valuable
inclusion in the behaviour change toolkit.
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ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
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Awake provides psychology-based services
to support the development of sustainable behaviour in individuals, groups and
organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au
for more info
Workshop
Report – Cultivating Sustainability in New Zealand
Cultivating Sustainability workshops have just been
completed in 6 locations throughout
“Great framework for encouraging behavioural change within
organisations”
“Provided me with tools and insights to challenge me to review
how I am approaching my sustainability project”
”This workshop has given me good insight into the motivating
factors in people’s behaviour and ways to get lasting change”
“I found the workshop useful to help me learn practical and
positive/inspirational ways to change peoples
attitudes and behaviours towards sustainability”
Thanks to all those who attended, participated and
provided valuable feedback. No firm
dates are in place for future NZ workshops, but expect another visit some time
in the first quarter of 2010.
For more information about the Cultivating Sustainability
workshop, see www.awake.com.au/cultivating.html
Interesting
Article of the Month –
Stress That Doesn’t Pay: The Commuting Paradox
Where?
Stress That Doesn’t Pay: The Commuting Paradox
By Alois Stutzer and Bruno S. Frey
Institute
for Empirical Research in Economics
What is it about?
In this study, economists take a look at the effects of
commuting on subjective wellbeing, and ask the question – is commuting worth
it?
What did they find?
The study reveals that long commuting time leads to
significantly lower life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing. Furthermore, when the data from people who
had moved was examined, those who had their daily commute lengthened reported a
decrease in wellbeing. And even the
partners of those who had a long commute reported lower wellbeing. Additionally, the supposed benefits of long
commuting, in terms of the lifestyle and housing opportunities, failed to
compensate for the negative effects.
What can we take from this?
The authors carefully dissect the possible reasons for
this finding, as it clashes with the economic concept of “equilibrium”. This principle contends that,
if we do not see some benefit from a situation, we don’t maintain it. However, they are unable to come up with any
reason why we continue to choose long commuting times, even though they make us
miserable.
This finding is significant as the debate heats up in many
modern cities about the relative merits of urban sprawl and higher density
housing. It is commonly espoused that
people desire the “dream” of a big house with a backyard and a garage, and that
this compensates for the longer and longer commuting time often necessary to
achieve the dream. However, this study
suggests that the benefits are just not worth it to us – something which may
provide valuable ammunition for those who seek to promote more compact
cities.
60 Seconds with….. Audua Castledine-Ruiz from Green Pages
What first got you focused on sustainability?
When I worked for a community
newspaper, I worked on a couple of green features and developed a real interest
and passion for the area and wanted to be more a part of it.
What is the sustainable choice you have recently made of
which you are most proud?
I do it for my work now – which
is really important to me. I spend a big
part of my life at work, so it’s the best way for me to be committed to green
issues.
What is a less sustainable choice that you are not so
proud of?
Recycling – I’ve let it slip a
bit since staying at my boyfriend’s house temporarily, which is not set up well
for recycling. I guess I should take the
initiative and get his place better set up so he gets into the habit!
Exercise of the Month –
Does the Motive Make a Difference?
In the feature article above, it is noted that our motivation
for undertaking a pro-environment behaviour can influence the way we feel about
it. This months
exercise invites you to see if this rings true for some of your own behaviours.
1. List 3 pro-environment
behaviours or decisions you chose, even though they had an extra cost in terms
of money, time or effort.
2. List 3
pro-environment behaviours or decisions you chose, where the primary motivation was to
save you money, time or effort.
3. When you focus on
each of the lists above, is there a difference in the way you feel about
them? Is there a difference in the
degree to which you feel each list is indicative of your commitment to
environmental sustainability?
According to the research
discussed earlier, when we take action primarily because of the money, it has
less effect on our self-perception in relation to the environment.
However, when we feel we have made
a positive decision for the environment as our primary motive, it is more
likely to enhance our self-perception as environmentally concerned. It is also more likely to lead us to take on
other similar behaviours in order to maintain consistency with this
self-perception.
The exercise of the month provides
a tool to help you get engaged, inspired, aware and in action around
sustainability. Feel free to use it on your own, with a friend, or in
your work. If you do use it with others, please tell them where you got
it!
About Awake
Awake provides psychology-based services to support the
development of sustainable behaviour in individuals, groups and
organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au for
more info
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© Awake 2009