"Someone like me"

I have previously written about the contribution that behaviour change can make to reducing household carbon dioxide emissions. Yet we still tend to think of behaviour change in largely individual terms, partly because we are used to working with small groups of 'pioneers' or 'early adopters', often on a one-to-one basis.

Those of us who are trying to adopt new, pro-environmental behaviours and encourage others to do the same, often feel that we are cutting against the grain. This isn't because the people around us are too stupid or ignorant to follow us, nor is it because we aren't getting the message across properly. It's because pro-environmental behaviour isn't yet a social norm. The prevailing social norm on energy and resource use is one that we have inherited from the era of cheap and abundant fossil fuels, where people became used to jumping in the car, turning up the heating and leaving the lights on, because the environmental, social and economic consequences of doing so seemed very remote.

Connected, a recent book by the US academics Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler, gives us some insights into the way in which new behaviours and attitudes spread through the population to become social norms. Essentially Christakis and Fowler argue that we are more likely to adopt a new behaviour or attitude when 'someone like me' does it.

As is so often the case, we have a lot to learn from the public health field. Christakis and Fowler use the example of the Framingham Heart Study which shows that people who adopt behaviour patterns that are bad for their heart (you know the kind of thing), are likely to have friends, family, neighbours or co-workers who do the same. Conversely, people who exhibit behaviours that are good for their heart, are likely to have friends who do the same. Clearly there must be economic influences on personal health behaviour, as there are on pro-environmental behaviour. People on low incomes don't have the same choices in terms of access to healthy food and the means to exercise. Economics doesn't determine everything, but Christakis and Fowler aren't arguing that we have completely free will either.

Can we apply Christakis and Fowler's theory to pro-environmental behaviour? I think that the 'someone like me' theory is valid for some of the easier to adopt environmental behaviours like recycling. When Birmingham City Council introduced widespread doorstep collection a few years back, it quickly became a social norm across the City to recycle, because people could see their neighbours doing so. Simple nudges are enough for entry-level pro-environmental behaviours but not for the more difficult changes to deeply ingrained habits. Here we need a more multi-faceted understanding of the interplay of economics and psychology and how they influence environmental behaviour. There are many psychological influences on environmental behaviour, and the more complex the behaviour change we are trying to achieve, the more complex the psychological factors become and the wider the pool of theories of behavioural psychology that we need to draw upon becomes.

The Four E's Theory (1) is a good model for understanding how we can influence environmental behaviour. We need to engage, encourage and enable people to adopt environmental behaviour, and to exemplify such behaviour.

Most approaches to pro-environmental behaviour focus on one or perhaps two of the Four 4 E's. It may be difficult for one single intervention to achieve all Fou E's. It is desirable to deliver carbon reduction interventions that bring all Four E's into play. The key, therefore, is to join up different interventions to achieve all Four E's. This way, we avoid 'insulation only' or 'solar panels only' or 'energy advice only' interventions that miss out on two or three of the Four E's. This is a key priority for forthcoming Green Deal interventions such as Birmingham Energy Savers.

A further valuable insight from Connected that is highly relevant to us is the section on how Barack Obama's campaign to win the Democratic nomination in 2008 depended not only on getting the most out of his supporters, but on linking his supporters to each other. He did this through the website www.my.barackobama.com which went beyond traditional forms of political organisation because by using social media, it connected people who were two or three steps removed from each other's immediate social networks. It introduced people to a 'friend of a friend' and to a 'friend of a friend of a friend.' Can we emulate this in influencing environmental behaviour? We need to connect early adopters with people who are open to new environmental behaviours but who are currently two or three steps removed from the immediate social network of the early adopter. Social media, which are now used by the majority of the adult population, are key to connecting early adopters and pioneers to 'a friend of a friend of a friend' who is willing and able to change. This connects early adopters with other segments, and spreads the contagion of pro environmental behaviour, helping it to become a social norm more quickly.

In the context of a Green Deal programme such as Birmingham Energy Savers, a social media approach to connecting people could be a vital part of a Four E's strategy for shifting environmental behaviour. That way, more and more people in Birmingham will be able to say that they know 'someone like me' who lives a lower-carbon lifestyle.

Footnote: (1) See http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb10589-securing-the-future-050307.pdf p27, and http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=EV0503_8291_FRP.pdf p69