The document outlines the SHIFT framework for changing sustainable consumer behaviors. It discusses how social influence, habits, feelings, and tangibility can impact behaviors. For social influence, it explains how social norms, social desirability, and social groups shape actions. It also discusses breaking bad habits and forming new ones. For individual factors, it addresses self-values, self-interest, self-efficacy, self-concept, and consistency. The document provides examples of grasscycling in Calgary to demonstrate combining appeals to social influence and individual factors.
5. A) Social Norms:
Socially driven informal rules
that guide behaviour
Many unsustainable behaviors
are the norm!
6. Consumer Energy Conservation Example
1207 households in California
Information only
Descriptive norm
Environmental
Self-benefit
Social responsibility
Delivered on door hangers to households for 4 weeks
Meter readings of electricity consumption Schultz et al. 2003
14. Dissociative Groups Example
Research assistant posing as coffee shop
employee offers students a free sample of
a coffee product in a compostable cup
Manipulation of Reference Group
Membership Group Dissociative GroupControl Group
White and Simpson 2013
15. Reference Group Manipulation
“We are trying to encourage students to compost
because of a new initiative on campus. Recently, a
survey was conducted and it found that Business
Students (Computing Science) students are the most
effective in composting efforts when comparing
across the student groups.”
16. Percent Composting Their Cup
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Reference Group Type
Membership Group
Control Group
Dissociative Group
Implications:
27. Self-Concept
Psychological motive to view the self positively
Men perceive sustainability as being a
“feminine” attribute and will avoid eco-friendly
options (Brough et al. 2016)
29. Self-Consistency and Commitment
Capitalize on commitment and consistency
Once a person commits to something, they
are more likely to continue with the positive
action
Public and durable commitments!
McKenzie-Mohr 2011
30. When Consistency Backfires
Slacktivism: small token public acts towards a cause
don’t increase subsequent positive actions
This about how the cause connects to values
Ask for real commitments, not just symbolic displays
Kristofferson, White, and Peloza 2016
35. T angibility
The challenge of sustainable actions:
Psychologically distant
Abstract, distant, vague, for others…
Behaviours with uncertain pay-offs
38. Make it Concrete
“If everyone in New York City were
to wash their laundry in cold water
for ONE DAY this would be enough
electricity to light up the empire
state building for one month”
43. Case Example: Grasscycling In Calgary
The context of grasscycling
What exactly do we want to influence?
44. Case Example: Grasscycling In Calgary
Needed to focus on homeowners who had
lawns, especially in suburban areas
45. Case Example: Grasscycling In Calgary
Injunctive Norms
• Norms that reflect what others think should be done
Descriptive Norms
• Norms that describe what other people are doing
Self-Benefits
• What is in it for me?
46. Self-Benefits
● Think about the benefits for you as an individual if you
grasscycle…Think of the time you can save on your yard work.
Descriptive Norms
● Your neighbors are grasscycling…Join others in your community in
grasscycling this spring and summer.
Injunctive Norms
● Your neighbors want you to grasscycle… Grasscycling is something
you should do for your community.
Social influence and Individual Self
47. Individual Self
• “you as an individual…”
• “you can make a difference”
Collective Self
• “we as a community”
• “we can make a difference”
48. Method
Part A: In conjunction with City employees, grasscycling
activities for 696 households were recorded for a period of
three weeks.
Part C: Grasscycling activities recorded
for a period of three weeks.
Part B: Appeals delivered on door hangers to each household. Varied
Level of Self (individual vs. collective) and
Appeal Type (self-benefit vs. descriptive norm vs. injunctive norm.
51. City of Calgary implemented descriptive norms/ collective self messaging
Remember that one concept or tool does not work “best”
Consider goals, the behavior, context, target market, barriers and benefits
Don’t be afraid to combine tools if it is appropriate your case!
instructing those in the private condition that their responses would be anonymous and confidential. Participants were provided a sealed envelope to return their completed surveys. In addition, the instructions on the paper-and-pen questionnaire completed for the experiment reminded the participants that all responses would remain anonymous and confidential. Participants in the public condition were asked to complete the surveys individually before informal discussions in small groups of six to eight people were to take place to replicate a focus group setting. T
7-point scales
www.dontmesswithtexas.org/the-campaign/30-years/
At a coffee shop frequented by business students
Reference group: membership group vs. dissociative outgroup vs. control
Pretest: Computing science students are viewed as a dissociative group and business students are viewed as a membership group
DV: Unobtrusive observer recorded whether or not participants disposed of their cup in the composting receptacle
)
Habits form slowly over time through repeated action. They are then likely to recur automatically without much conscious control or effort in stable contexts, such as the same location or time of day (Verplanken and Aarts 1999).
Well, the One-o-One Travel Mug (conceived by Hangar Design) for Taiwanese brand Acera treads this contemporary design path, with its commemorative depiction of Taipei’s renowned skyline dotted with skyscrapers.
The prefix ‘One-o-One’ comes from Taipei 101’s acronym, which held the record title for the world’s tallest building for many years, before the advent of Burj Khalifa. More interestingly, the Taipei 101 is also the world’s tallest green building with its rare LEED Platinum certification.
If the context in which habits arise and/or are carried out breaks or becomes unstable, it is more difficult for people to automatically carry out behaviours. Thus a changed context can promote the use of conscious decision making and set up more ideal conditions for people to change their existing habits. Previous studies have shown that during big life changes (i.e., when contexts are less likely to be stable), people are more likely to increase their eco-friendly behaviours (Bamberg 2006; Thøgersen 2012; Verplanken et al. 2008; Walker, Thomas, and Verplanken 2015). In one study, half of the 800 participating households had recently relocated and were matched on household size, home ownership, recycling facilities, and access to public transport with households that had not recently moved. The study first determined a baseline for sustainable habits through a survey. Half the participants were then given the intervention, which consisted of an interview, a selection of sustainable items, information, and a newsletter. The researchers found that people who had moved within the last three months were more likely to pick up more environmentally friendly behaviours after the intervention (Verplanken and Roy 2016). Although informational campaigns have found it difficult to change strong habits, combining them with context changes can greatly improve effectiveness.
Ask people to change their habits during context shifts.
Big moves such as house relocation, starting a new job, etc., are a good time to try to get people to start new habits.
Consider using penalties only if you can monitor and enforce the program.
If you use penalties, don’t use penalties that are considered to be extreme or unfair.
Tool #1: Make It Easy
Make the sustainable behaviour less costly, less effortful, or easier to do.
Set green behaviours and options to be the default choice.
Tool #2: Incentives
Provide non-monetary incentives such as gifts or tokens and/or large monetary incentives such as the chance to win prize money.
Be careful when giving monetary incentives because this can backfire if the savings are small and can discourage altruistic motives.
Tool #3: Prompts
Use prompts to remind people to engage in the desired sustainable consumer behavior.
Ensure that prompts are noticeable, clear, and in close proximity to where the actual behavior will be carried out.
Tool #4: Feedback
Give frequent and regular feedback over a long time.
Present the feedback clearly and appealingly.
Provide individualized real-time feedback when possible rather than comparative peer feedback when in a non-group setting.
Tool #1: Make It Easy
Make the sustainable behaviour less costly, less effortful, or easier to do.
Set green behaviours and options to be the default choice.
Tool #2: Incentives
Provide non-monetary incentives such as gifts or tokens and/or large monetary incentives such as the chance to win prize money.
Be careful when giving monetary incentives because this can backfire if the savings are small and can discourage altruistic motives.
Tool #3: Prompts
Use prompts to remind people to engage in the desired sustainable consumer behavior.
Ensure that prompts are noticeable, clear, and in close proximity to where the actual behavior will be carried out.
Tool #4: Feedback
Give frequent and regular feedback over a long time.
Present the feedback clearly and appealingly.
Provide individualized real-time feedback when possible rather than comparative peer feedback when in a non-group setting.
include beliefs that sustainable attributes diminish other attributes that are important to the self, such as functionality (Lin and Chang 2013; Luchs et al. 2010; Newman, Gorlin, and Dhar 2014), aesthetics (Luchs and Kumar 2017), effort (Johnstone and Tan 2015), or affordability (Hugner et al. 2007).
Use third party labelling to verify “credence” qualities
Makes it seem transparent, credible, and trustworthy
If everyone in New York City were to wash their laundry in cold water for ONE DAY this would be enough electricity to light up the empire state building for one month!!!
155 miles of driving is the same as eating 2.2 lbs of beef!!!!