FEELING blue about climate change? Don鈥檛 despair. Psychologists say they can switch our mindset from fatalism to 鈥渃an-do鈥� optimism, making a unique and vital contribution to the fight against global warming.
On 15 August at the American Psychological Association meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, delegates vowed to expose, and help overcome, the psychological barriers individuals face. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so easy to feel overwhelmed and think: 鈥榃hat can little me do?鈥�,鈥� says of the University of Surrey, UK.
Most people now accept that global warming is real and caused by human activity. Uzzell cites surveys carried out by the UK government this year showing that 80 per cent of Brits are at least 鈥渇airly concerned鈥� about climate change. A Stanford University, California, poll conducted this August shows that 75 per cent of Americans believe warming can only be reduced if individuals change their lifestyles. So why aren鈥檛 we doing more?
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A key deterrent, says Paul Stern of the US , is a lack of guidance on which actions would have the greatest positive impact. 鈥淪eeing a list of 50 things you can do to save the planet paralyses people,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he usual behavioural reaction is to do nothing or pick a step you can do easily, such as switching out the lights when you leave a room. While alleviating people鈥檚 anxiety, the actual effect of this is negligible.
To prompt people to take more effective steps, Stern has created a more manageable (). These include changes to car use, which accounts for about 40 per cent of a US household鈥檚 energy consumption, and indoor heating and cooling, which together make up 25 per cent.
Equally crucial is telling those who take the plunge how much they are saving. 鈥淚nstant feedback is really important,鈥� says Uzzell. 鈥淧eople need to see that their actions have effects that are local, immediate and concrete.鈥� Stern advocates energy monitoring devices that make savings more visible.
An under-appreciated barrier to action is the status conferred by some energy-guzzling products, such as large cars. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e often sold as part of an image of masculinity,鈥� says Uzzell. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e selling something larger than the product itself.鈥�
Though not at the meeting, Susie Burke of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) agrees. 鈥淥ne of the most vital things psychology can do is to help change social norms, so it becomes fashionable to recycle, for example,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not brainwashing, it鈥檚 acknowledging that humans like to behave in a socially acceptable way.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 not brainwashing, it鈥檚 acknowledging that humans like to behave in socially acceptable ways鈥�
This week, Stern, Uzzell and others are drafting a global policy for applying psychology to climate change, building on a .
