How to Save the World | The Psychology & Science of Environmental Behavior

Today's guest is environmental psychologist, Veronica Champine, PhD Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant at Colorado State University.

We're breaking down the science of "social diffusion" in her research paper "Understanding individual and diffusion behaviors related to native plant gardening" recently published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Her research explores the difference between asking people to take individual action vs asking people to talk to people around them and showing by example - that's social diffusion - an often missing link in many climate programs and startups.

We'll be diving into the power and nuance of helping people to get better at diffusing environmental behaviors in their communities - and what we need to do to become designers of social diffusion.

The paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494422000433

LINKS

👉 ⁠⁠⁠Get Katie's FREE Action Design Tips⁠⁠⁠

🌈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apply to The School of Climate Action Design⁠⁠⁠

🌏 ⁠⁠⁠Join Earth Doctors: 12 Weeks of Gamified Action for Kids⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠

📦 ⁠⁠⁠SHOP Climate Games, Books, Calendars + More⁠⁠⁠

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How to Save the World is a podcast about the psychology of what gets people to do eco-behaviors and take climate action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to rapidly get more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at http://katiepatrick.com

Join my Gamify the Planet masterclass training in climate action design for $25 / month http://katiepatrick.com/gamifytheplanet

Get a copy of the book, How to Save the World on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Z4jivL 

This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action.

Follow on Twitter @katiepatrick

Instagram @katiepatrickhello

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-patrick/

We can get better at telling the story of sustainability, climate, and greener futures. I wrote down these 24 evocative words, backed by science to motivate people, and riffed on ideas of how you use each of them to tell better stories to get people to join your environmental project. We need to be able to inspire epic feelings in people. Here are some examples of how you can do it. 

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How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to get magnitudes more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at http://katiepatrick.com 

Join my masterclass training in climate action design for $25 / month http://katiepatrick.com/gamifytheplanet 

Get a copy of the book, How to Save the World on Amazon 

This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action. 

Contribute a monthly donation to the How to Save the World podcast at patreon.com/katiepatrick 

Follow on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, and LinkedIn 

Book a 90-minute Idea Storming Call with Katie: https://calendly.com/katiepatrick/idea-storm

Have you ever seen a "sustainability street" program you thought was a great idea? In this month's Gamify the Planet Masterclass, we're creating one! In this episode, I share a simple tutorial on how you can design a gamified sustainability street program to promote decarbonization, electrification, and roof-top solar - and we'll learn the theory behind behavioral techniques work to tap into the human motivational core.

Images and info to follow along + register for the class: https://katiepatrick.com/sustainabilitystreet

See the Climate Action Yard Signs: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkysFgJv2Cp/

Gamify the Planet: Climate Action Masterclass

Learn more at katiepatrick.com/gamifytheplanet

Sign up for $25/month at Patreon.com/katiepatrick

In this episode, we speak with Thijs Bouman, assistant professor and researcher from the Environmental Psychology group at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He’s done some fascinating research into the relationship between group and individual environmental values.

We often think of our value systems and beliefs as if they were created by our own independent thoughts, but we as humans, are highly influenced by the groups we interact with. Seeing environmental change through the lens of group behavior could provide a very different lens through which to design environmental campaigns and programs.

Thijs' research explores how, as individuals, we tend to underestimate the pro-environmental values of others, and because of this, we shortchange our own impact. Yet, when our fellow group members strongly endorse pro-environmental values, discovering this boosts our own environmental engagement. 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thijsbouman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/T_Bouman

LINKS

👉 ⁠⁠⁠Get Katie's FREE Action Design Tips⁠⁠⁠

🌈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apply to The School of Climate Action Design⁠⁠⁠

🌏 ⁠⁠⁠Join Earth Doctors: 12 Weeks of Gamified Action for Kids⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠

📦 ⁠⁠⁠SHOP Climate Games, Books, Calendars + More⁠⁠⁠

How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to get magnitudes more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product.

We need to avoid the trap of getting caught up in a single idea. Ideas are plentiful. When it comes to climate or social change, an idea is just a hypothesis. Will your idea actually create the change you think it will? You'll only know by testing it. 

In this episode, I talk about how you need to have lots of ideas and rapidly iterate them. You need to test them and discover the causal mechanism of what works on people. The faster you can test and iterate, the faster you can get to the mechanisms of what people love and why they change. Work on your vision of the future world and less on your "idea." 

Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon

Join my masterclass training in climate action design for $25 / month http://katiepatrick.com/gamifytheplanet

* * * 

How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to get magnitudes more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at http://katiepatrick.com

This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action.

Contribute a monthly donation to the How to Save the World podcast at patreon.com/katiepatrick

Follow on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, and LinkedIn

Book a 90-minute Idea Storming Call with Katie: https://calendly.com/katiepatrick/idea-storm

This episode is a short tutorial on my custom behavior mapping process for climate action. It's the most powerful thing I've ever learned how to do and once I learned how to do it, it changed everything. If you're trying to influence humans to take any action at all for the climate, you need to learn how to behavior map. It's the secret to great ideas that get real impact results.

I developed a specialized behavior mapping system designed specifically for climate and environmental change. 

Behavior mapping is a process where you map out your target human's daily actions and figure out where on their journey you will pounce. Then you assess what psychological technique you'll use to capture their attention and which tool you'll use to get them to act, buy, or change – such as a flashing light, an audio chime, a written pledge, a group identity sticker, a goal, a social norm, a default, an animated character, a confetti reward, or a color change – I've cataloged 96 techniques!

I put these 96 techniques together in my custom Behavior Mapping Template – and I'm hosting my first-ever workshop next Tuesday to teach you how to master it!

Download the PDF here and follow along.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t32o6ox43yfb3jq/Behavior%20Mapping%20for%20Masterclass%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0

DOORS OPEN

Sign up for my Climate Action Design Masterclass group for $25 / month on Patreon.com/katiepatrick

*Get a free 24" wall poster of the behavior mapping template when you join.

Each month I'll be hosting a special advanced workshop for my Patreon supporters on the Gamify the Planet tier.

The workshop will be recorded and sent to the group.

How do we persuade homeowners to make climate upgrades to their homes such as electrifying, installing solar, or improving energy efficiency? Do we persuade them using environmental facts and energy data, or is a social mechanism more effective, like sparking a conversation with a neighbor or friend? 

Our guest today is Brian Southwell. Brian is the Adjunct Professor at Duke University’s School of Medicine, the director of the Science in the Public Sphere Program at a large non-profit research institute called RTI, and he also is and hosts The Measure of Everyday Life radio show. His research paper we are diving into today is titled “Weatherization behavior and social context: The influences of factual knowledge and social interaction” and it tests which works better to get people to take action on their homes - facts or conversations?" 

When big climate, decarbonization, and electrification programs are rolled out by utilities, local governments, and NGOs across thousands or millions of homes, when these organizations often spend millions of dollars trying to get traction in communities, the nuance of what works to drive action really matters. 

LINKS

👉 ⁠⁠⁠Get Katie's FREE Action Design Tips⁠⁠⁠

🌈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apply to The School of Climate Action Design⁠⁠⁠

🌏 ⁠⁠⁠Join Earth Doctors: 12 Weeks of Gamified Action for Kids⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠

📦 ⁠⁠⁠SHOP Climate Games, Books, Calendars + More⁠⁠⁠

How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based techniques you can use to get more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at http://katiepatrick.com 

There's a line in a song that says "Words are hotter fire. Words are wetter than water." You might not think that words possess a superpower that can help you change the world, but if you're in the job of influencing people to change, language is your secret weapon. 

In this episode, I talk through some of the mistakes I see people make and how you can get better at crafting your written story and your copywriting. I hope you take the time to master the art of sculpting words that deeply move people, and through that, you can spark a revolution.  

I recommend you read these books:

On Writing Well, by Willian Zinsser https://amzn.to/2Ty9qsr 

The Sense of Style, by Steven Pinker https://amzn.to/3dDF6DH

* * * 

How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to rapidly get more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at http://katiepatrick.com

Join my Gamify the Planet masterclass training in climate action design for $25 / month http://katiepatrick.com/gamifytheplanet 

Get a copy of the book, How to Save the World on Amazon

This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action.

Contribute a monthly donation to the How to Save the World podcast at patreon.com/katiepatrick

Follow on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, and LinkedIn

Book a 90-minute Idea Storming Call with Katie: https://calendly.com/katiepatrick/idea-storm