Drawing on Psychological Theories of Social Norms and Collective Action to Link Individual and Systems Level Climate Solutions
Abstract: In recent years, there has been growing criticism of research in the behavioral sciences and behavioral public policy for treating climate change and other societal challenges as individual rather than systemic problems, with individual rather than systemic solutions. In this talk, I argue that this criticism overlooks the interdependent relationship between individual and systems change in two ways. First, individuals are socially embedded and interdependent. This means that behavior change interventions often have direct effects but also indirect spillover effects on others that can continue beyond the intervention. Spillover effects have implications for whether a circumscribed intervention spreads or stalls, and who should be targeted by interventions to initiate broader social change. Second, structural or systems change often comes about because of public pressure, advocacy and collective action. Yet, these types of political behaviors are uncommon in the context of climate change. In recent efforts to encourage these behaviors, I identify promising psychologically-informed interventions that increase collective action and political behaviors across the political spectrum. Drawing on a program of research that spans large-scale mega studies, group experiments, analyses of observational data, and computational models, I demonstrate the potential for bottom-up climate solutions to engender broader social change.
Dr. Constantino is on the faculty at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability in the Department of Environmental Social Sciences at Stanford University. She has an interdisciplinary background at the intersection of economics, psychology, and environmental policy and politics. Her research focuses on understanding the interplay between individual, collective, institutional and ecological factors, including how they shape preferences, decisions, experiences and resilience to extreme events or shocks. In recent and ongoing studies, she is looking at the role of polarization, social norms and governance in stimulating or stifling climate action, including both adaptation and mitigation, and what conditions lead groups mobilize to shape policy and other outcomes. She also works on the impacts and politics of guaranteed income and other cash transfer programs.
