Social Change and the Fun Theory

The article How Psychology Can Help the Planet Stay Cool in New Scientist August 2009 points out that the failure of pessimism to change human behavior has been well recognized.  Environmental groups have already learned some obvious lessons: no one likes to be hectored, and preachiness is not a winning tactic. Positive campaigns like "We can solve the climate crisis", run by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, are a better idea. 

"As social animals, we like to interact with others and take inspiration from their actions. Psychologists are working out how to exploit this to spread behaviors that will help limit climate change. 'My sense is that social networks are going to be important, says Swim."

So what do we do now?  I went in search of web sites and projects seeking to overcome pessimism and embrace optimism, fun and silliness in their efforts to change people's behavior.  

One climate change org that clearly gets the message right is 350.org.  350.org creates unique campaigns and public events that inspire: 

The most amazing thing about this October 2009 event is that it was hundreds of small separate events that were all seen as a "global event" only because they were leveraged spectacularly well through social media.  350.org also maintains strong social media tactics on their website, encouraging members and site visitors to create and share photos showing themselves valuing climate change solutions.

The EcoTipping Points Project (tag line: "models of success in a time of crisis") is dedicated to making the stories of success known.  I found their 100 stories of success very inspiring.  Now we need 100 stories of climate change success.

"Inspiring" is good, and "inspiring" is needed.  But back to silliness…

Halloween: It’s getting scarier by the Climate Reality Project offered this Halloween message on climate change:

1. Climate change is projected to shrink the world’s chocolate supply.

2. Extreme weather, caused by climate change, is bad for halloween pumpkin crops. 

3. There’s reason to believe climate change will ruin the colors of your fall foliage.

Okay, that made me smile.  Plus, all these cute headlines were backed up by data.  I like data, that makes me smile too.

For something sillier, how about some singing climate scientists?

Now that's silly, and silliness is good, right?  Of course, changing people's behavior is what we really need to do.

I think we can learn something from this project funded by Volkwagen.  They call it The Fun Theory!  Enjoy

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Can we change people's behavior through fun?  Let's try.

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