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Lecture 09 - Promoting Environmentally Protective Behavior — Transcript

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0:09last week we talked about a type of
0:11behavior toward the environment which
0:13focused on spatial adjustments so we
0:15adjust our personal space or we create
0:17and defend territory
0:19in order to regulate and improve our
0:21interaction with other people
0:23today we're talking about a kind of
0:25behavior where we act on the environment
0:27to affect its quality to contaminate it
0:29to preserve it
0:30and so we we call this environmentally
0:33protective behavior
0:34and we'll be talking about conserving
0:36natural resources and protecting
0:38the quality of our global and local
0:41environments
0:42now some of the concerns that have been
0:45cropping up
0:46in recent years about human impacts on
0:48the environment
0:50are especially depletion of the ozone
0:52layer
0:53which was brought about largely by
0:54people using
0:56these cfcs chlorofluorocarbons
0:59which researchers here at uci especially
1:03professor sherwood roland and earth
1:05sciences who sadly passed away
1:07last month but he won a nobel prize for
1:10discovering the hole in the ozone layer
1:13in antarctica
1:17we also have to be concerned about the
1:20greenhouse effect and global warming and
1:21what that is is that
1:22there's so much carbon production carbon
1:24dioxide production from our cars and
1:26from burning fossil fuels
1:28that this creates a kind of heat shield
1:31over the environment it traps
1:32the heat of the earth but it doesn't let
1:34it escape into space
1:36so this is the greenhouse effect where
1:39you have these gases that people are
1:41creating through their
1:43everyday behaviors like driving their
1:46cars to work not carpooling
1:47things like that human activities
1:51create these gases and then the earth
1:53traps them
1:55and you have this it's kind of like a
1:57greenhouse where you grow plants the
1:58glass of that greenhouse traps the heat
2:00inside it can't escape
2:02and you have a gradual warming of the
2:04earth's environment resulting
2:06in a lot of damage to our natural
2:09ecosystems
2:10so how do we get people engaged to try
2:13to
2:14prevent this some of these problems from
2:16occurring
2:17ecological capital refers to these nice
2:19natural resources our trees our beaches
2:22clean air and
2:26also nutrient-rich topsoil unpolluted
2:28oceans and these provide services they
2:30they help produce
2:31fish and other crops that we need so
2:33they're essential for food production
2:36the hydrological cycle cleans out
2:38pollutants from our rivers and oceans
2:40so those are the kind of services the
2:42ecological or ecosystem services
2:44that come from these natural resources
2:47this natural capital
2:50now one of the ways we can affect
2:53ecosystem services is by bringing
2:56natural capital to our rooftops most
2:58cities have this you know
2:59totally paved asphalt on roofs large
3:02cities
3:02skyscrapers and there's a growing
3:04movement called the green roofs movement
3:07where this is the chicago city hall for
3:10example
3:11and this is a public building in fukuoka
3:14japan
3:15where there's been a con concentrated
3:18effort to bring
3:19natural capital the soil plants and in
3:22this case the solar panels which harvest
3:24the sun's energy
3:25to the rooftop these resources do on our
3:28rooftops by bringing that natural
3:29capital up to the roof
3:31we have reduced energy costs through
3:33natural insulation
3:36the capacity to absorb storm water so
3:38you don't need as
3:39expensive storm drain systems this helps
3:43improve air quality
3:44because the plants give off oxygen and
3:46they trap carbon carbon dioxide
3:49they create restorative spaces for
3:51people and animals so
3:52a lot of times you find birds nesting up
3:54here and
3:56people going to the rooftop gardens to
3:58kind of relax from the urban scene
4:00gardening some of the rooftop
4:04green rooftops have gardening provisions
4:06as well and then it reduces what's
4:08called the urban heat island effect
4:09which is the
4:10tendency for heat to get trapped by
4:13buildings in large cities
4:15and so it helps regulate some of that
4:17temperature
4:18extreme that you often get in large
4:20urbanized areas
4:22so this is an interesting example of
4:23using that natural capital to generate
4:25and enhance
4:26these kinds of ecosystem services this
4:29is these are the benefits of the natural
4:30capital
4:31when we talk about capital whether it's
4:33financial capital that's being invested
4:34in stocks to create dividends or profit
4:37or we talk about intellectual capital
4:40you going into college to
4:42gain an education and a degree so that
4:44your employment opportunities and
4:46prospects
4:47improve once you graduate that's
4:48intellectual or human capital
4:50later in the course we'll talk about
4:52social capital where people invest
4:53their time and energy in their social
4:55environments or communities to create
4:57certain
4:57social dividends and here we're talking
4:59about natural capital
5:01where we're investing these natural
5:03resources up here on the rooftop to
5:05create
5:05and enhance these ecosystem services
5:08over here
5:09and a lot of times when we value or we
5:11try to
5:13derive the economic costs of urban
5:15developments
5:16we forget that when we put in a parking
5:18lot
5:19and county crows was talking about
5:21paving over the parking lot
5:23what happens is you reduce the amount of
5:25arable land
5:26where you can grow plants and you can
5:28produce that oxygen so
5:30the rapid rate at which the world is
5:31urbanizing and creating
5:33city spaces is often counter to
5:37the need to kind of create and protect
5:39these ecosystem services
5:43so ecological capital is really the
5:46combined
5:47store of our natural capital the soil
5:49the trees the unpolluted oceans
5:52and some of those are non-renewable
5:54resources like oil minerals
5:56that are extracted from ecosystems and
5:58then we have our renewable
5:59resources such as fish wood drinking
6:02water that are produced
6:03and maintained by ecosystems and those
6:06are the natural capital and when you put
6:08those together with the ecosystem
6:09services that they produce
6:11including climate processes regulation
6:15the water cycle recycling of nutrients
6:17generation of soils
6:19pollination of crops by bees and other
6:22species maintenance of a vast genetic
6:25library
6:26we have a lot of medications that have
6:28come from the amazon
6:29forest because there's such a diversity
6:32of species living in that ecosystem
6:34so these are the services that go hand
6:35in hand with the natural capital
6:37and together they constitute this
6:39ecological capital
6:40that we have so one of the questions for
6:42environmental psychology is how do we
6:44preserve and protect that natural
6:46capital
6:48we also know that world population
6:51has really spiked since the 1800s
6:55to the present in 1810 the world reached
6:58its first billion population
7:00and you can see what's happened after
7:03that by 1999 we had six billion people
7:06by 2011 we have seven seven billion
7:08people now we've got
7:09we're you know we're going on eight
7:10billion you can see the rapid rise
7:13of population here and the next slide
7:15sort of makes that very graphic
7:17you know up to uh from all of human
7:20history up to 1800 or so
7:23first billion people and then the second
7:26billion third billion fourth billion
7:28and the eight billion probably by about
7:3020 24.
7:32and 97 of this population growth in the
7:35world is occurring
7:36in the developing nature nations right
7:39here
7:39and you can see that the rate of
7:41population growth in the developed
7:42countries has been relatively flat
7:44and if you look at a country like china
7:47with
7:471.4 billion people where they've had a
7:50very stringent
7:51one-child policy they're facing a
7:54demographic challenge in the coming
7:55years where they're going to have an
7:56overabundance of older people
7:58and not enough younger people to kind of
8:00maintain that burgeoning economy so
8:02there's some really interesting
8:03demographic implications of these
8:05policies and regulations
8:08one of the things that i want to say
8:09about the rapid growth of human
8:11population on the one hand it's a
8:13it shows that we've made a lot of
8:14progress because through medication and
8:16public health
8:17people are living longer and we have
8:20safer environments in many cases so in
8:23some ways you could say well this
8:24population increase is going to keep
8:26going
8:26and we could go 8 10 you know
8:3011 12 billion and not feel a problem but
8:32when you look at the win edwards article
8:34that you read
8:35last week on the carrying capacity of an
8:39ecosystem
8:40are there some upper limits at which you
8:43start to reach
8:45limits or problems that set in for
8:47example the quality of schools and the
8:49opportunities for education starts to go
8:51down
8:52the global warming the carbon dioxide
8:54production
8:55keeps going up so we have these
8:57environmental change problems that start
8:59to
9:00create certain kinds of disease
9:01potentials and hurt crops and increase
9:04flooding
9:04so there may be as wynn edwards talked
9:07about meant some decades ago there may
9:09be these sort of
9:10ceiling densities or carrying capacities
9:13for our human
9:14ecosystem and this population growth
9:17can't go on
9:18indefinitely without bumping up against
9:20those kind of limits
9:23now one measure of humans use of their
9:26ecosystem is called the ecological
9:27footprint
9:28and it's basically the amount of
9:32biologically productive land for example
9:35nutrient
9:36rich soils and water areas like lakes
9:40and rivers
9:41that produce what humans are using and
9:44get rid of the waste through prevailing
9:47technologies that come from all of that
9:49consumption
9:50so it's a measure of human impact on
9:51local and global ecosystems
9:53the amount of land required to produce
9:55the food fuel and fiber to sustain our
9:57lifestyle
9:58and it assesses the the productive land
10:01and marine areas
10:02required to produce all these resources
10:04we're using
10:05and to observe absorb the corresponding
10:08waste coming from that consumption
10:10now global overshoot refers to a
10:13situation where we're
10:14exceeding the limits of our ecosystem
10:17we're exceeding our biosphere's supply
10:19or regenerative capacity
10:22and what that means is that
10:25down here when we talk about planet
10:27equivalence the number of earths it
10:29would take to support
10:30humanity's ecological footprint in 2006
10:34the world's average ecological footprint
10:36was 1.4 planet equivalence and what that
10:38means is that
10:40we would need 1.4 earths or we're using
10:43our resources 1.4
10:45times as fast as the earth can
10:46regenerate them and
10:48that number has actually gone up a bit
10:50in 2007
10:52it was 1.5 planet equivalents which
10:55means we're using our resources
10:571.5 times as fast as we can regenerate
10:59them so if that keeps going up
11:01then the earth starts to limit its
11:03ability to
11:04resupply all the natural capital that
11:07we're using up
11:08the earth has about 4.5 biologically
11:11productive acres for each person in the
11:12world if you take
11:14the 8 billion people or the 7 billion
11:16people right now
11:17in the world and you divide that up per
11:21capita there's about 4.5 biologically
11:23productive acres for each person
11:25but in america our average ecological
11:28footprint is about 24 acres or more than
11:30five city blocks
11:32so there's obviously some real
11:34disparities or discrepancies between
11:36how quickly our natural capital and our
11:40ecological resources are being consumed
11:42in different parts of the world
11:43depending on the technologies the
11:44economies
11:45in those different regions yeah question
11:49let's say your name kevin kevin you
11:52touched upon that point about
11:53the disparities of use because when you
11:56look at the population curve
11:57there's a lot of population in
11:59developing countries but they use a lot
12:00less resources
12:01right right that's a very good point so
12:04in the in the slide that i showed you
12:06comparing the developing
12:07and the developed nations in terms of
12:09rate of population growth
12:11even though the population is going up
12:13the per capita consumption of resources
12:15is less than what we have in some of the
12:16developed countries right here and
12:18that's why you have that 24.5
12:21acres needed per american whereas
12:24there's about 4.5
12:26acres for each person in the world so
12:27we're sort of going way past
12:29what you might consider to be the norm
12:32given the number of people we have in
12:33the world
12:37we've talked a lot about ecology uh in
12:39the early part of this
12:40course which is looking at people
12:43environment relations as a system
12:45for animal environment relations as a
12:47system
12:48and we can talk about the ecology of
12:50pro-environmental or
12:52environmentally protective behavior
12:54that's another way of saying it
12:56and there are mutual influences on what
12:58we do as individuals
12:59to protect or hurt our environment for
13:02example this green arrow here which has
13:04the double arrowheads
13:06suggests that through our behavior we're
13:08contributing to global environmental
13:10change and global warming
13:11by for example choosing to burn a lot of
13:13fossil fuels or not ride sharing to work
13:16at the same time the arrow going this
13:18way means that the enormity of these
13:20changes
13:21are sometimes overwhelming us to the
13:23point where we give up
13:25and we feel helpless to do anything
13:27about it
13:28this arrow here the pink arrow suggests
13:32that
13:33social norms and what's going on in at
13:36the societal level
13:37may have a dramatic effect on people's
13:40environmentally protected behavior we
13:41saw that in china
13:43where during the olympics in 2008 the
13:45government mandated that
13:47people could only drive cars with
13:50even-numbered license plates on
13:52a particular day and the next day only
13:54people with odd numbered
13:55license plates could drive you know the
13:57last digit of license plate ending in an
13:59odd or even number
14:01and that dramatically reduced air
14:02pollution in beijing
14:04it also reduced during that period
14:07emergency room visits
14:08and respiratory problems in the
14:10population and that's all been
14:11documented
14:12through medical research so if you could
14:14create certain kinds of societal forces
14:16or norms
14:17they can have a tremendous impact on
14:19what we do as individuals toward the
14:20environment
14:23and of course there's an interplay
14:24between social norms and
14:26what organizations do i don't know
14:28amanda kind of a hard question maybe or
14:31i don't know i hear so much about what
14:33we
14:33can do and people talking about it but
14:35going back to
14:36getting overwhelmed has there been any
14:39talk of how much longer we have
14:41for this stuff to be reversible for us
14:43to have a chance
14:45there's a lot of talk about that and i
14:46think if you look at our political
14:48divides in this country today
14:51some in you know let's say the
14:53republican party there are a lot of
14:55people that would
14:56say that putting too much money into
14:59renewable fuels and green energy
15:01is contributing to our deficits so
15:03they're very concerned about the growth
15:04of our deficit
15:06in the u.s on the other hand you'll have
15:08people in the other party saying
15:10well if we don't do that and if we don't
15:11put that investment in
15:13we only have maybe 25 30 years before
15:15we're going to reach that carrying
15:17capacity on earth and everything's going
15:18to crash because
15:19you know we're going to have flooding
15:20you know cities like venice are going to
15:22be
15:22overwhelmed with sea water and they're
15:25already worrying about that in venice
15:26they have a
15:27flood reduction or reversal program
15:30going in that city
15:32so there's a lot of debate about that
15:33and what this brings out when i talk
15:35about
15:36you know whether we're in the
15:37interpretive active mode where you're
15:39developing a cognitive map of your
15:40environment
15:42whether you believe for example that
15:44there is a problem with global warming
15:46or it's trivial
15:47and it's made up and we shouldn't do
15:48anything about it those attitudes and
15:50those
15:51schemas or those perceptions in our head
15:53have a lot of impact on what we decide
15:55to do
15:56through our behavior so the cognitive
15:58interpretive mode and the evaluative
16:00mode and the behavior mode they're all
16:02kind of
16:02working together they influence each
16:04other they're not sort of
16:06separated exclusively so our perceptions
16:09and our attitudes determine whether
16:11we're going to change our behavior or
16:12not and our political ideologies show
16:14that there are huge divides in terms of
16:16our attitudes in this country about
16:17whether
16:18environmental change global
16:19environmental change is a serious
16:20problem or it's not
16:23so the ecological approach suggests that
16:26there are many layers of influence on
16:27our environmentally protected behavior
16:30from the social norms that we encounter
16:32in society to
16:34the workplaces and organizations where
16:36we go to work or we go to school
16:38and just as there's a green initiative
16:40fund at uci that can affect
16:42students perceptions of this problem or
16:44the green roofs movement
16:45so all of those layers of influence
16:47according to the ecology of
16:48pro-environmental behavior are affecting
16:50individuals what they decide to do
16:52toward their environment
16:54now just to give you an example of how
16:56social norms or social facts
16:58affect these kinds of processes emil
17:01durkheim is a very famous sociologist
17:03who came up with the notion of a social
17:05fact
17:05or a force in society it could be
17:07poverty it could be
17:09environmental injustice racial
17:11discrimination
17:12they're widespread in society these
17:14conditions and they exert power and
17:16influence over people's behavior
17:18and well-being and yet even though
17:20they're objectively observable
17:22a lot of times we're not even aware of
17:23them we're you know individuals don't
17:25perceive
17:26that there's environmental just
17:27injustice necessarily it takes some
17:29research by someone like robert bullard
17:32to document that through his data in
17:33atlanta and other cities in the south
17:36so they're widespread in society they
17:37have this power over us but a lot of
17:39times we don't even perceive it it's at
17:40a social level
17:41rather than at a psychological perceived
17:43level
17:45now these social facts these norms and
17:48conditions in society
17:50do have an effect on what we call
17:51psychological facts our perceptions
17:54our behavior so for example when you
17:56have societies going through very rapid
17:58change
17:59there's often a kind of breakdown of
18:01social norms
18:02durkheim called this anomie or
18:04dysregulation
18:06and those conditions in society can lead
18:08to psychological individuals feelings of
18:10anxiety
18:11powerlessness lack of control and a
18:14variety of behavioral dysfunctions
18:16passivity not wanting to do anything to
18:18try to improve the environment
18:19or being depressed about it not feeling
18:21like there's anything we could really do
18:24so the social facts have a very
18:26important relationship to these
18:28psychological
18:29perceptions of ours and our attitudes
18:32in china as an example there's a huge
18:35number of
18:36sources of change happening in that
18:38country from you know very rapid
18:40economic development and poverty
18:41alleviation so there's
18:43the growth of china's gdp at tremendous
18:47tremendously fast rates massive
18:49migration
18:50of people seeking employment in the
18:52eastern mega cities like shanghai and
18:54beijing
18:55how many of you have been to beijing or
18:57to china mainland china
18:59okay so a lot of you have been there
19:00you've seen some of these rapid changes
19:03elevated levels of pollution happening
19:06in large urban areas
19:07an obesity crisis you wouldn't think
19:09that in china
19:12with you know a lot of the rice
19:14consumption and and sort of sensible
19:16diets that they've had traditionally
19:18there'd be an obesity crisis but what's
19:20happening you've got
19:21uh colonel sanders and carl's jr being
19:24imported into asia
19:25at very fast rates and we're starting to
19:27get an obesity crisis
19:29in those countries rapid moderate
19:32modernization versus historic
19:34preservation that's a tension going on
19:36in that society
19:37you know bulldozing uh traditional
19:39courtyard
19:40neighborhoods to put up skyscrapers
19:42where a lot of people can live in a
19:43high-rise apartment building
19:45various ethnic minority uh and hon
19:47majority tensions
19:49surging rates of internet use which
19:51means that traditional
19:52chinese are being exposed to influences
19:55from all over the world because they're
19:56connected virtually through the internet
19:58so
19:59this is a very large mix of
20:02rapid change in that society
20:05and some of those changes are
20:07illustrated here where you've got these
20:09traditional courtyard hutong
20:10neighborhoods
20:12this this symbol here means that this
20:14neighborhood is slated for
20:15demolition it's going to they're going
20:17to get rid of it and
20:19they're going to put up probably a
20:20larger high-rise kind of situation this
20:22is one of the ring roads in
20:23beijing which shows this contrast
20:26between rapid modernization
20:28and traditional forms of housing and
20:30other structures
20:31so these kind of social changes at a
20:34very rapid rate
20:35create certain challenges for the
20:36population and it makes it more
20:38difficult to get everyone on the same
20:40page
20:40focusing on whether it's energy
20:42conservation or it's a public health
20:44initiative or something like that
20:45although they were very successful in
20:47doing that around
20:47the beijing olympics in 2008
20:51and this is you know kind of what's
20:53happening with the influx of american
20:56fast food chains into asia
21:00remember we saw the morgan spurlock
21:02documentary supersize me
21:06so when you look at these social changes
21:08going on in countries like china and we
21:10have a lot of
21:11rapid social change in this country as
21:12well and a lot of political divides and
21:16tensions and income inequality it's not
21:18like our society's
21:20placid and harmonious and equilibrium a
21:22lot of modern countries are going
21:24through very
21:25rapid change and turmoil so the american
21:28psychological association created a task
21:30force to study
21:32what psychology can contribute to
21:34promoting environmental protection
21:36improving the environment
21:37and what they found is that there are a
21:39lot of psychological facts
21:41or conditions that people experience
21:44a feeling of uncertainty is there a
21:46problem with global warming or not
21:48you know is there enough data to really
21:49make that call mistrust
21:52of you know messages from scientists or
21:54government officials that there's a
21:56problem or not enough
21:57a problem denial that there actually is
21:59a problem occurring
22:00a lot of people believe that climate
22:02change is not occurring
22:04lack of control a sense of not being
22:06able to control what's going on around
22:08you
22:08habits you know driving instead of
22:10walking or biking
22:12so these are psychological states that
22:16have a profound influence on whether
22:17we're going to change our behavior
22:18toward the environment or not and
22:20they're also influenced by
22:21these more prevailing macro conditions
22:25in society the social norms and the
22:26social forces
22:28so what does psychology have to say
22:30about different kinds of environmentally
22:32protective behaviors
22:35from you know using these
22:36energy-efficient light bulbs to
22:39investing in wind power solar power so
22:41we're going to take a look at some of
22:42that research
22:43today one distinction that's
22:47an important one to be aware of is this
22:49distinction between
22:50active and passive behaviors or
22:53interventions for energy conservation an
22:55active intervention is one where you as
22:57an individual have to put out some
22:59effort
22:59like turning the lights on or changing
23:02your thermostat so you have to remember
23:03to do that
23:04actively a passive intervention
23:08is one that doesn't require any
23:11individual attention
23:12or change and habit it's built in to the
23:15system
23:16so if we want to protect people from
23:18automobile
23:20accident injuries we we install airbags
23:22that inflate automatically when they're
23:23in the crash they don't have to think
23:24about that
23:25but at an active level they do have to
23:27think about buckling up their seat belts
23:28so those are two
23:29very different interventions but by the
23:31same token you can build
23:33certain systems into our facilities that
23:36turn the lights off when people go out
23:38of the room
23:38because they have these motion sensors
23:40on them that would be a passive
23:42intervention
23:43so we we kind of need to harvest both of
23:45those when we
23:47create new policies to improve energy
23:49conservation we have to be aware of
23:51what can people do actively and what
23:53kind of building systems and
23:55technological systems can be
23:57uh relied on to sort of help them in
23:59those efforts where they don't have to
24:00think about it as much
24:02and they can you know do the right thing
24:03so to speak without
24:05having to actively contemplate their
24:07behavior
24:08later beth carlin one of our tas is
24:11going to present some research
24:13that she's been doing on targeting
24:16certain
24:16behaviors that have a profound impact
24:19they're called high leverage behaviors
24:21in the home we know for example that a
24:24large proportion
24:25of energy is consumed by transportation
24:28so the kind of car you buy
24:30has a tremendous impact on the energy
24:33use of that household throughout the
24:34year
24:35and in this particular estimation it was
24:37about 43
24:38although those numbers change all the
24:40time uh because for example as we
24:44create more and more technologies with
24:45our digital devices that we're plugging
24:47into our walls at home
24:48and we're charging our cell phones and
24:50we're charging our ipads and everything
24:52else
24:53that's putting more load on those kind
24:54of devices so these proportions change
24:56around but we do know that the type of
24:58automobile that people produce
25:00big impact heavy hitter in terms of what
25:02households use
25:03by way of yearly energy consumption by
25:05the same token their heating and
25:07ventilation systems
25:09you know the kinds of air conditioning
25:10and heating systems we have in our homes
25:12those are huge consumers of energy
25:14throughout the year so
25:15we want to target those kinds of things
25:17and some of those are one-shot
25:18installations you put in the right kind
25:20of system
25:20or you buy the right type of
25:22energy-efficient car it
25:24it gets you dividends in terms of energy
25:26conservation and environmental
25:27protection throughout the whole year
25:28so beth's going to elaborate on some of
25:30those particular
25:31findings a little bit later another
25:34thing that we have to be aware of is
25:35a lot of the research on environmental
25:38energy conservation has happened in the
25:40residential sector
25:42and yet some estimates are that close to
25:45two-thirds of energy use happens in the
25:48government
25:49and in the corporate sector so we also
25:52have to target those sectors we can't
25:54just try to change the minds and the
25:56behaviors of
25:56people living in their homes and
25:57apartments we also have to get to the
26:00corporate decision makers who make
26:01decisions about what how to build you
26:03know energy systems into their buildings
26:05uh as passive interventions for example
26:08another important distinction between
26:12the active and passive categories is
26:15the personal and other directed types of
26:18environmental behaviors so a personal
26:21example would be
26:22you personally take action to modify
26:25your energy by turning off the lights
26:26in your office when you leave or a
26:29resident decides to participate in a
26:31municipal
26:32recycling program so those are things we
26:34do personally to affect our environment
26:36other directed behaviors are things
26:38where a person or a group takes action
26:41that
26:41modifies others energy use patterns so
26:44this might be a manager at a company
26:46deciding to install occupant sensors
26:49throughout the building
26:50or efficient bulbs and that affects
26:53everybody's energy use
26:54you don't as an individual employee you
26:56don't have a you don't have to decide to
26:58do that the manager's already
27:00made that decision for hundreds of
27:01employees at a time
27:03by the same token the city council can
27:05vote to implement
27:06a curbside recycling program and thereby
27:10affect the behavior of thousands of
27:11residents
27:12and irvine the city of irvine has one of
27:14those programs
27:15so these are other directed where people
27:17or intermediaries are making those
27:18decisions to affect
27:20the energy use of a lot of people these
27:22are more personal individual actions
27:24that we can take so that's an important
27:25distinction you want to sort of draw on
27:26both of those
27:28and not leave out the key decision
27:30makers that are deciding
27:32within companies and within government
27:34sectors
27:35what types of energy used to use what
27:37kinds of recycling programs to
27:39implement and those kinds of things now
27:41when we look at
27:43what are the most effective ways of
27:45changing people's behavior toward the
27:47environment
27:49there are at least four different
27:50strategies one is to pay them
27:53and that's cash rewards and that proves
27:56to be
27:56pretty effective in getting people to
27:58change the behavior you could also give
28:00them information you can say you know
28:01there's a
28:02global environmental change problem
28:04happening global warming and you really
28:06ought to do something about it
28:07and ride share instead of drive solo to
28:10work to reduce your carbon dioxide
28:11production
28:12so that's giving people information you
28:15can also give people feedback
28:17verbally or written about how much
28:20energy they're using so you get a
28:22monthly bill from southern california
28:24edison and it tells you what your
28:26household has used in the past
28:27month and you can try to modify that or
28:30ignore it
28:31you know so that's feedback and then you
28:34can also praise people you could give
28:35them some strokes for doing
28:37the right thing when it comes to the
28:38environment and some of these energy
28:40bills that come from southern california
28:42edison and other municipalities
28:44they'll give you a smiley face if your
28:46household reduced your
28:47average energy consumption over the last
28:49month but they'll give you a frown
28:51if you were sort of an energy hog and
28:52you were much higher than the rest of
28:54your community
28:55so those are different strategies and we
28:57find that providing information alone
28:59doesn't really do a lot
29:00people can tune it out and change the
29:04channel
29:04and ignore it you can give people a lot
29:06of information about what's good for
29:08their health what's good for the
29:09environment
29:10but they're very good at sort of
29:12screening it out
29:13so we're going to look more at these
29:15these different strategies here
29:17when we talk about providing financial
29:19incentives
29:20one example of that is here in
29:22sacramento
29:23this municipal utility district pays
29:27companies
29:27gives them rebates on equipment that
29:30they order for their corporate
29:31facilities if they're
29:33energy star rated if they're rated as
29:36being
29:37efficient in terms of energy use they
29:39get rebates
29:40and those add up to corporate savings
29:43here you've got a home in irvine where
29:45a solar panel installation has been put
29:47in
29:48and southern california addison also
29:50supports that through tax credit so
29:52you can either purchase such a system
29:55and pay it off over the years and your
29:57energy savings will
29:58you know make it worthwhile after about
30:0010 or 15 years or you can get companies
30:02to come in
30:03install it for free and then you pay
30:05them a certain percentage of your energy
30:07bill each month and you don't even have
30:08to invest in it and overall your energy
30:10savings are enough to
30:11justify that additional expense so these
30:14are some
30:15ways of sort of providing financial
30:18incentives for people to protect their
30:20environments
30:21at the corporate or at the residential
30:22level
30:24and when we talk about rewarding people
30:28for a particular behavior to try to
30:30shape it up to make it increase in
30:32frequency
30:33a lot of this comes from bf skinner's
30:36theory of learning and he coined the
30:37term operant
30:39any behavior by which a person operates
30:42on his or her environment so it's a
30:43fancy word for saying yeah we affect our
30:45environment by polluting it by
30:47conserving our resources by changing our
30:49personal space establishing territory
30:51we're operating on our environment
30:53now what determines whether we keep
30:54doing that whether we keep recycling
30:57or whether we litter when we're driving
30:59is whether we get punished for doing
31:01that or rewarded so that's where this
31:03whole notion of incentives comes from
31:05and some of this research came out of
31:08skinner's rat studies where he had
31:10different kinds of animals in these
31:12skinner boxes
31:13and he found that their reinforcement
31:15rates in terms of access to food pellets
31:18was a way of shaping certain behaviors
31:20that he wanted to target and sort of
31:22build up
31:22and then by punishing those animals
31:24which sometimes was done through
31:25electrical shock or from withdrawal of
31:27food
31:28he was able to extinguish certain
31:30behaviors and that
31:32that would be a kind of punishment
31:33schedule so behavior is shaped
31:36or reinforced or extinguished by its
31:38consequences and that's the fundamental
31:40assumption
31:41of bf skinner so the idea might be that
31:44well we can pay people
31:45to ride the bus we can make it worth
31:47their while or we can pay people to put
31:49in a
31:50residential solar system and
31:53you know if we give them enough
31:54incentives they'll do that
31:57so one way that this was applied and
31:59before i give you an example of the bus
32:01riding study that you
32:03read about today i want to talk a little
32:05bit about
32:07the next slide which is
32:10looking at the positive and negative
32:11consequences here we're going to talk
32:13about transportation behavior
32:15whether somebody decides to buy a hummer
32:17or to ride
32:18a bus or train line to work or to bike
32:21or
32:21take the bus here all of that depends on
32:24a sort of balancing
32:25of reinforcers and punishers
32:29is you've got these different ways of
32:31getting around the city
32:32you can sit in rush hour drive your own
32:34car one of the reasons that
32:37people are deciding to ride their car is
32:39there certain benefits associated with
32:41that you can leave when you want to
32:43you can ride with someone else or you
32:44don't have to you can eat your lunch
32:46or listen to an audio tape while you're
32:48driving so you have maximum control over
32:50that car environment
32:52here when you're taking the bus
32:56less control you know you've got to
32:57conform to the bus driver's schedules
32:59you've got to make the right change or
33:01at least have the right change available
33:03or driving in a van pool to work and a
33:06lot of companies around irvine have
33:07invested thousands of dollars in
33:09creating corporate band pool
33:10so individuals are encouraged to
33:14drive in a band to work and this is an
33:16early sort of van pool program from
33:18floor corporation
33:19over on michelson and jamboree
33:23yeah so here we've got reinforcing
33:27effects of driving your car
33:28short travel time high prestige you can
33:31drive your bmw
33:33uh choice of travel route when you
33:36leave is up to you costs are often
33:38deferred you can put the gas costs on
33:40your credit card and not have to worry
33:41about it
33:42until later you have more privacy you
33:45can carry more cargo
33:47the advantages of the reinforcing
33:50advantages of not driving your car let's
33:51say taking the bus or walking you've got
33:53freedom from responsibilities of driving
33:55parking and route selection
33:57you get healthful exercise if you're
33:59walking or riding the bike so people are
34:00weighing these
34:01reinforcers that sort of in their
34:04decisions to drive the car
34:06or do something alternative over here
34:08you've got the punishing effects
34:10of driving your car like getting caught
34:12in traffic congestion
34:13or the high costs of gas and they keep
34:15going up
34:16versus some of the punishing
34:19consequences
34:20of walking or biking or not driving
34:22longer travel times lower prestige
34:25small choice of travel routes inflexible
34:27schedules
34:29cost like if you're taking the bus costs
34:31are immediate you have to pay as you go
34:33you're
34:33more crowded often less transport space
34:36and sometimes they can be pretty
34:37dangerous when you're out on the freeway
34:39or
34:39you know surface streets driving your
34:41your bike around so
34:43you can see that the reinforcers for
34:45driving the car are stacked against
34:48the reinforcers for not driving and by
34:50the same token the punishers for not
34:52driving
34:52are stacked against the fewer punishers
34:55for actually driving so what that means
34:57is people typically choose
34:59to drive their own car especially in
35:01southern california where the social
35:03norms
35:03kind of support that lifestyle in some
35:06cities they wouldn't support that if you
35:07go to zurich switzerland
35:09there's such a good tram system there
35:11and train system hardly anybody owns a
35:13car or drives it around the city they're
35:14biking or they're on the tram
35:16and that's part of the social norm the
35:18what i was talking about before how
35:19the societal conditions affect people's
35:22individual behavior
35:23but in southern california it's not that
35:25way
35:26so in the bus study that we read for uh
35:29today
35:31peter everett is a guy i went to grad
35:33school with at north carolina
35:35he was in the experimental psychology
35:37wing of our psych department so he
35:39was studying animal behavior schenerian
35:41theory
35:42and he decided to get a minor like i was
35:45doing in urban planning
35:46and to apply schenerian theory to bus
35:49riding
35:49and ride sharing so this is a study that
35:52he did at penn state when he took his
35:53first job at penn
35:54state and what he decided to do was to
35:57create two different buses
35:59in that community one that had a big red
36:03star
36:03and if you got on the big red star bus
36:05you'd get tokens that you could redeem
36:07for merchandise in the town center
36:10the other bus on that same route didn't
36:11have a big red star and wasn't giving
36:12out tokens
36:14so both of the buses uh and you can see
36:17some of the things that they could
36:18uh redeem their tokens for and back in
36:20those days cigarettes were sort of
36:22fashionable they're not anymore
36:23uh but this was back in the 70s when he
36:25did this particular study
36:27next slide so in the first part of the
36:30experiment the first 16 days
36:32the two buses were not distinguished in
36:34any way there was no red star on the
36:36experimental bus nobody was giving out
36:37tokens
36:38during the treatment phase of that study
36:42the experimental bus began to give out
36:45tokens so as people got on the bus they
36:47received a token that they could redeem
36:48for merchandise
36:50and there was a big red star on the bus
36:52so people knew
36:53that was the one to get on to get their
36:54tokens and this was advertised also in
36:56the school paper that they could do this
36:58so during that phase the the rate of bus
37:01riding went up
37:02150 percent in the experimental bus so
37:04this means that
37:06a la skunarian theory you can in fact
37:08shape people's bus riding behavior and
37:10pay them or reinforce them
37:12to rideshare so that's good news right
37:16and then when they returned to baseline
37:17and got rid of the red star and no more
37:19tokens being given out on the red star
37:21bus
37:22the rates drop back to baseline in other
37:24words the two buses look the same
37:26so does anybody recall a problem that
37:30was noticed
37:30in the results of that study so the the
37:33token reinforcement was very
37:35effective in modifying people's bus
37:38riding behavior
37:39but what was a problem with it i should
37:41um look at that
37:42the people who were walking they also
37:46started taking the bus too right so
37:49this dotted line here is what the groups
37:52were like at baseline so
37:54these columns here are during the
37:58experimental phase you have the token
37:59condition where they're getting tokens
38:02and then what that group did when they
38:03went back to baseline in the third part
38:05of the experiment
38:06so if you compare walkers and car
38:08drivers coming into the penn state
38:10campus
38:11the people that really changed during
38:12the experimental condition during the
38:14token condition were the walkers
38:16the car drivers really didn't change
38:18that much between baseline one
38:21and during the uh experimental condition
38:24so this this group really went up in
38:26their their walk
38:27they're taking the bus compared to the
38:29car drivers but by the time the
38:31experiment went back to
38:32the return to baseline in period three
38:35these people were below baseline one
38:37the walkers were no longer riding the
38:39bus the car drivers were sort of riding
38:42at the same rate they were at baseline
38:43one
38:44and then these breakdowns are by
38:46graduate and undergraduate you had more
38:48undergraduates getting on the bus than
38:50graduate students during the
38:51token phase you had more trips uh for
38:54academic purposes
38:56uh getting on the bus than those that
38:58may be staff members who are riding to
38:59the campus
39:00to do non-academic roles but the
39:04interesting thing here is that
39:07the schenarion token reinforcement
39:09strategy was very very effective in
39:11increasing bus riding
39:12but it increased it among the group you
39:14really didn't want to
39:16elevate bus riding and these people were
39:18already walking they weren't using any
39:20carbon fuels to get the school and
39:22because they knew that they could get
39:24reinforced and paid to get on the bus
39:26they chose to do that
39:28so that's a problem with some of these
39:30strategies where you pay people to get
39:32the reward for doing
39:34environmentally protected behavior they
39:35figure out when and how to do that and
39:37as soon as a reward system goes away
39:39they go back to baseline
39:41and by the way the people you're trying
39:42to influence the car drivers hardly
39:44changed at all
39:45between phase one and two so they
39:47wouldn't have known this
39:48if they hadn't disaggregated the data by
39:51these different categories
39:52but they found out that they had most
39:54impact on the walkers which was not the
39:55group they wanted to
39:56influence so sometimes this is called
39:59unintended negative consequences of
40:01interventions
40:02you know you're trying to improve some
40:04condition in society and solve a problem
40:06and you wind up
40:07solving other problems or you wind up
40:09creating other problems so that's the
40:11unintended negative consequence removing
40:12walkers off the sidewalk onto the bus
40:15so they can get their their pay now let
40:17me
40:18just mention two other things about
40:19reinforcement schedules
40:22there's a distinction we can draw
40:23between contingent reinforcement
40:26and non-contingent contingent means
40:28every time someone gets on the bus they
40:29get one token
40:31non-contingent means every time they get
40:32on the bus they get 12 tokens or 20
40:34tokens
40:35yes
40:44do you think that if they would have
40:46increased maybe the information of the
40:48program through the mass media and now
40:49that like
40:50now maybe nowadays we have internet and
40:51stuff because they could have gotten to
40:53the auto drivers because it seems like
40:55maybe the people that walked
40:56already took the bus sometimes probably
40:59it would be reasonable to think if they
41:00had to go further
41:01than walking distance so they might have
41:02found out that way and it didn't really
41:04spread out
41:05it might be that publicizing the study
41:08and the intervention more widely through
41:09the internet today
41:11might have prompted some of those car
41:12drivers to take the bus but what they
41:14argued was that
41:16the walkers were already going down that
41:18route to get the campus maybe they lived
41:19in a dorm close by and they just walk
41:21over to campus
41:22so it's easy enough for them to top on
41:23the bus get their reinforcement whereas
41:25somebody driving in from
41:27further outside town center they're
41:30saying probably wouldn't have changed
41:31their behavior would have been too
41:32inconvenient to do that just to get a
41:33token
41:34so you know that's one of the that's but
41:36it's a good question about whether it
41:37was publicizing the study
41:39and if they had done that more whether
41:40more car drivers would have participated
41:43this slide is simply making a point that
41:45when you give people non-contingent
41:47rewards you in other words you give them
41:4912 or 20 rewards for doing something
41:52like riding a bus and this was an
41:53experimental study
41:54over time you see that the number of
41:57tokens returned each time somebody rides
42:00the bus
42:01is lower for the non-contingent group
42:04the 12 non-contingent tokens
42:06than it is for the one token this is
42:08contingent one for one
42:09which is this line here or three tokens
42:12for each one used which is here
42:14so contingent reinforcement turns out to
42:17be a lot more effective than
42:18non-contingent reinforcement even when
42:20you're paying people
42:20double uh to try to change the behavior
42:23if it's non-contingent
42:24they don't make that connection and
42:25change the behavior
42:28another uh distinction that that b.f
42:31skinner drew was between
42:34variable and non-variable ratio
42:36reinforcement and here you've got a
42:38a bus riding game where variable ratio
42:42means you're thinning out the
42:44the reinforcement rate every sixth time
42:47you get on the bus in that game you get
42:48a reinforcer
42:50whereas continuous means every time you
42:52get on the bus
42:53you get a reinforcer not every sixth
42:54time here but every
42:56single time you get that reinforcer and
42:59here they're thinning it out even more
43:01every 36th time you get on the bus it's
43:03a little lower than continuous
43:05but what this is saying is you can thin
43:06out reinforcement or reward schedules
43:09and still get the same bang
43:10for that buck in fact you can get even
43:12more compliance
43:14because people are working harder to get
43:15that reward even though it's not
43:17happening every time so that's called
43:19variable ratio
43:20reinforcement schedules versus
43:22continuous and here you've got the
43:23baseline where they're not getting any
43:25reinforcement at all
43:26now i want to kind of transition into
43:28more of
43:31some of the things that beth is going to
43:32go into more detail on and we're going
43:34to talk
43:35here about a study done at the arizona
43:38state university on people's
43:40use of towels when they check into a
43:42hotel how many of you have seen these
43:44kind of things here
43:47when you go into a hotel okay so what do
43:50they say usually
43:53yeah what's your name claire good point
43:56so
43:57claire is saying that the message that's
43:59contained on these
44:01towel hanger cards can vary so this one
44:03at the court elaine
44:04in idaho says towels left hanging
44:07indicate that you wish to reuse them
44:08towels placed on the floor will be
44:10exchanged with freshly laundered
44:11towels so there's nothing about oh
44:13protect your environment or
44:15if you do this we'll do something for
44:17you
44:18this hotel that i was just at in chicago
44:21says
44:22help preserve our natural resources your
44:24use your towels more than once to help
44:26reduce the amount of water energy and
44:27detergents we use daily
44:29hang the towels on the rack if you'd
44:30like to reuse them or leave them on the
44:32floor and we'll provide you with fresh
44:33towels
44:34do you think those messages have any
44:36effect at all on people's
44:38compliance with the request to reuse
44:40their towels
44:41and which would be more effective what
44:43do you think
44:45aruna okay so haruna's got the
44:48she's already read this study very good
44:50so she's saying
44:52that yeah you can you can activate an
44:54environmental protection norm and say if
44:55you
44:56reuse your towels you're cutting down on
44:58the use of energy and detergents
45:00but in the study i'm going to tell you
45:01about what the researchers did is they
45:04told the guests that based on previous
45:07data 75
45:08or so of fellow guests reused their
45:10towels and as soon as they gave them
45:12that descriptive norm
45:13of what other people do it was like
45:15people wanted to conform to that
45:17and get in line and do the right thing
45:19so that's called a socially descriptive
45:21norm
45:22whereas a norm saying do the right thing
45:23for the environment is an injunctive
45:25norm it means
45:26do it because it's the right thing to do
45:28so this is was a very interesting study
45:30what this slide is saying here
45:32is they compared the effectiveness of
45:34these different kinds of appeals on the
45:36towel hangers
45:37and here so that's pre-behavior
45:39normative appeal
45:40you check into the hotel you haven't
45:41used your towels yet they're giving you
45:43a prompt to do the right thing
45:45post behavior feedback is like when you
45:47get your energy bill from the utility
45:48company
45:49and here this person has been an energy
45:51hog they've used all these kilowatts
45:53and so they're showing them calling them
45:55out relative to their neighbors and
45:57their most efficient neighbors they've
45:58got a long ways to go to be more
46:00conserving and that's in sacramento so
46:02that's a very interesting
46:03uh kind of approach yeah so these are
46:06some of the towel hangers i mentioned to
46:08you this is one from the
46:09hilton hotels over here so let's look at
46:13if we compare the non-normative prompt
46:15just you know if you do if you leave
46:17them hanging we'll change them
46:19or we won't change them if you put them
46:20on the floor we'll change them here
46:21they're
46:22appealing to this environmental
46:23protection norm here they're appealing
46:25to a social responsibility norm
46:28which is the hilton family of brands is
46:31committed to conserving our country's
46:32natural resources every day tons of
46:34detergent
46:35millions of gallons of water are used to
46:37wash towels that have been used only
46:39once here's how you can help
46:40so you can help that's a social
46:42responsibility thing
46:44and they say a towel on the rack means
46:45i'll use it again tell on the floor
46:47please exchange so they're appealing to
46:49your
46:49being a good citizen or a good neighbor
46:52okay
46:53so this is a kind of busy slide but i'm
46:55going to you know
46:56summarize it i think fairly briefly
47:00there are four conditions in this study
47:01that were done by goldstein
47:03chaldini at all at arizona state
47:05university
47:06comparing descriptive and injunctive
47:08norms to promote towel reuse
47:11in this first condition they're saying
47:13help save the environment
47:14this is the norm of environmental
47:16protection you can show respect for
47:18nature and help
47:19save the environment by reusing towels
47:21during your stay 38
47:23of the people that got that appeal
47:24complied and reused their towels
47:26the second condition focused on the norm
47:30of environmental cooperation
47:32partner with us to help save the
47:33environment in exchange for your
47:35participating in the program we at the
47:36hotel will donate a percentage of the
47:38energy savings
47:39to a non-profit environmental protection
47:41organization
47:42the environment deserves our combined
47:44efforts you can join us by reusing your
47:46towels
47:4736 compliance 36 percent of the people
47:50that got that norm complied
47:52and so here they're saying if you do the
47:54right thing then the hotel will do the
47:55right thing and contribute to an
47:56organization that supports
47:58environmental quality you know sort of a
48:00quid pro quo
48:02this third condition was the descriptive
48:04norm condition that haruna mentioned
48:06join your fellow guests in helping save
48:08the environment almost 75 percent of
48:10guests who are asked to participate in
48:12our new resource savings program
48:13do help by reusing their towels more
48:16than once you can join your fellow
48:17guests to help save the environment by
48:19reusing your towels during your stay
48:2148 compliance there so they were able to
48:23get 10 percent greater
48:25compliance by using that appeal which
48:28was pretty deep
48:29because you would think gee just giving
48:30someone a kind of descriptive normal
48:32what other people do
48:33wouldn't be as powerful as the social
48:35responsibility norm
48:37or the environmental protection norm but
48:39it turned out to be quite
48:40quite powerful and then finally this
48:43fourth condition was interesting it was
48:44social reciprocity
48:46we're doing our part for the environment
48:48can we count on you
48:50and so what they said on what they said
48:52on that message was because we're
48:53committed to preserving the environment
48:54we've made a financial contribution
48:56to a non-profit environmental protection
48:58organization on behalf of the hotel and
49:00its guests
49:01if you would like to help us in
49:02recovering the expense
49:04while conserving natural resources
49:06please reuse your towels
49:07so there they're saying that the hotel
49:09already did the right thing
49:11and invested in this this positive
49:14organization
49:15and you can help the hotel sort of
49:16social reciprocity they did the right
49:18thing now you could do the right thing
49:19and help them recover the costs
49:21by reusing your towels 47 compliant so
49:24these two conditions here
49:26social reciprocity and descriptive
49:28social norm what other people
49:30do turned out to be the most powerful uh
49:33message on these towel hangers for
49:35changing people's behavior
49:36pretty interesting study now what beth
49:39is going to be talking about is a really
49:40interesting study done here at uci
49:43where there was a computer-based uh
49:46system installed in some homes in
49:48university hills to give people feedback
49:50on their daily energy use
49:52and there are a number of different
49:53technologies that can be used to make
49:55people aware
49:56of their energy use throughout the day
50:00applications on iphones where you can uh
50:03keep track of your your energy use from
50:05your meter
50:06so beth's gonna talk more about this but
50:08the key headline here is that people are
50:10more likely to use energy efficient
50:11appliances
50:12if they're provided with immediate
50:14energy use feedback so the more you can
50:16give them feedback
50:17that's just as powerful as paying them
50:19and giving them a repay
50:20so feedback and praise turn out to be
50:24more efficient because you're not using
50:25up resources trying to pay people to do
50:27the right thing
50:28you're giving them feedback and that
50:29turns out to be just as powerful it
50:31might be descriptive feedback you know
50:3275
50:33of the people that come into this hotel
50:35reuse their towels and you jump on board
50:37you do the same thing so that's pretty
50:39efficient cost effective
50:42one other point uh is to
50:45cult is to tailor these strategies for
50:48changing people's behavior toward the
50:49environment in accord with social norms
50:52and societal conditions so in china one
50:55of the most
50:55active groups for environmental change
50:57are the younger population
50:59it's not so much the older folks that
51:00are pushing gdp and
51:02modernization but a lot of the younger
51:04folks who are more global they're more
51:06virtual
51:07they're connected they're organizing
51:09these these
51:10movements to protect the environment and
51:12then this is from the beijing olympics
51:14in 2008
51:16which showed different things that
51:17people could do to protect their
51:20environment
51:20and that that nationwide effort turned
51:22out to be really powerful in changing
51:24people's behavior during that week
51:26so by summary i've talked about a lot of
51:29different strategies for
51:31influencing people's environmentally
51:32protective behavior from
51:34identifying the highest impact behaviors
51:37for your interventions targeting high
51:39leverage pro-environmental behaviors
51:41beth will say more about that adopt
51:44behavior change strategies that
51:45emphasize normative information
51:47behavioral feedback and social praise
51:49not you don't just have to pay people
51:51in fact that has some drawbacks
51:52sometimes adopt
51:54active as well as passive energy
51:56conservation strategies
51:58target other directed as well as
51:59personal pro-environmental behavior so
52:01so try to influence the decision makers
52:03as much as the individual
52:06people that are living in a home or
52:07working in a company and finally tailor
52:09your behavior change strategies to the
52:11specific cultural context and norm so
52:14those are that's a pretty good summary
52:16of what the research has shown in this
52:18area of environmental psychology
52:20and then very last two slides litter we
52:23haven't talked much about litter
52:25and how people just spoil their
52:26environments but a key point
52:28in this next slide is that when geller
52:31and his colleagues decorated these cans
52:34these trash receptacles and put them in
52:36shopping malls
52:37in blacksburg virginia the
52:40non-decorated cans drew less trash the
52:42bird cans drew 15 pounds
52:44the non-uh decorated cans only 9.34
52:48pounds
52:49so there was markedly less litter
52:52observed in the where the bird cans were
52:54and
52:54they were drawing more trash so by
52:56making this trash can more imageable
52:58putting a prompt on it to get people to
53:00sort of be aware of this environmental
53:02norm
53:03that was a much more effective kind of
53:04trash can than just leaving it
53:06non-decorated
53:07and nondescript okay so we'll take a
53:11little break give beth a chance to get
53:13set up and then she's going to
53:14present about 15 minutes or the last
53:17part of class on
53:18the research that she's been involved in
53:20on behavioral feedback and energy use
53:23i'm going to talk about as professor
53:25stokel said some of the work that i've
53:26been doing with him and a few other
53:28colleagues in both the school of social
53:30ecology as well as the school
53:31of computer science and physical
53:33sciences
53:35on energy conservation so when we look
53:37at energy use
53:39and we look at appeals how people as as
53:41professor stokols was talking about
53:43how do we get people to use less energy
53:46to conserve energy there's some research
53:48a lot of research has shown recently
53:49that there's potential to save as much
53:51as 40 percent
53:53of in-home energy use and that's using
53:55more efficient
53:56behavior not just reading by candlelight
54:00at night this is using energy the way
54:01we're used to we can save a lot so when
54:03we look at conservation appeals
54:04we see that people often talk about
54:06saving energy as if
54:08it's one behavior or we look at
54:12we see a lot of ads that target single
54:13behaviors and there are issues with both
54:15of these
54:17with the first this kind of go green or
54:19just save energy
54:20appeal is that conservation saving
54:22energy isn't one behavior it's a lot of
54:25unique behaviors that take place in the
54:26home
54:27if i told you to eat an apple and there
54:29was an apple nearby
54:30you could put it in your mouth and chew
54:32on it and eat it but when i say save
54:33energy what am i actually asking you to
54:35do
54:35there are over 500 discreet behaviors
54:37that i could be referring to
54:39and then when we think about instead
54:41giving people specific targeted
54:43behavioral
54:43suggestions there's this propensity
54:46towards information overload how many
54:48posters would you need
54:50to tell people everything they can do to
54:51save energy so when we pinpoint one
54:53thing like turning off lights when you
54:55leave a room
54:55we have a tendency to focus on that one
54:57behavior and people are less likely
54:59often to do other things
55:01so is there another solution and
55:04one is to make kind of a short list like
55:06one of the papers
55:07you guys read for class to identify here
55:10are the top 10 things you can do to save
55:12energy
55:12but if you notice even here within the
55:14shortlist article the gartner and stern
55:16article
55:17they talked about two types of behaviors
55:19and they talk about immediate low cost
55:21and longer term higher cost actions and
55:23those are often what we refer to those
55:25are discussed a lot
55:27what we refer to as behavioral
55:28dimensions so they're this distinction
55:30between
55:30for example turning off lights when you
55:33leave a room
55:34and changing a light bulb and most
55:36people
55:37including gardner and stern in some of
55:38their other works refer to these as
55:40curtailment
55:41and efficiency behaviors we actually
55:43looked at 28 different
55:44definitions of behavioral dimensions and
55:47we found that over
55:48and over again we saw this distinction
55:49between for example driving slower
55:52and buying an efficient vehicle or
55:54bundling up in your home
55:56when it's cold versus insulating your
55:58your
55:59your roof or walls a little bit better
56:02so we wanted to learn more
56:03about these different behavioral
56:05dimensions do people really engage in
56:07behaviors differentially are there
56:08different predictors
56:09so can conservation behaviors be
56:11classified reliably reliably looking at
56:13actual people
56:15and what variables might best predict
56:16are there differences in
56:18how we engage who engages in these
56:20behaviors so
56:21we did it we conducted a survey and we
56:23asked people about eight different
56:24energy conservation behaviors and we
56:26made sure to include both
56:27curtailment and efficiency behaviors so
56:30first just looking at what people did
56:32we see that there's variation within
56:33both the efficiency and the curtailment
56:35behaviors it's not that everybody did
56:37one and not the other
56:38both the most frequent replacing light
56:40bulbs in the least frequent checking for
56:41thermal leaks behaviors
56:43were reported in the efficiency domain
56:46so it looks like there isn't a big
56:47difference if you just look at percent
56:48reporting
56:49but what we also looked at is did they
56:52cluster in dimensions were there
56:53differences
56:54in what variables predicted so not
56:56looking at just the reported
56:58behaviors but what other variables
57:00correlated with them
57:01gender age homeownership environmental
57:05beliefs motivations
57:06and we did find that two primary
57:08components
57:09one for our curtailment behaviors and
57:11one for our efficiency behaviors did
57:13emerge
57:13and if you see this little behavior off
57:15to the side that was um which did emerge
57:17as a third dimension that was solar
57:18panels
57:19which we considered an alternative
57:21energy purchasing behavior as opposed to
57:23a conservation behavior so that was a
57:24third
57:25dimension and we saw that the predictors
57:29of these two types of behaviors differed
57:31significantly so we see that the
57:33significant predictors for both these
57:35behaviors
57:36for efficiency we saw mainly demographic
57:40gender age marital status and the most
57:42significant was whether you owned a home
57:44which makes sense when you think about
57:46insulating your walls
57:48when you think about putting in solar
57:51panels
57:52but we had behaviors like change your
57:54light bulb
57:55check your toilet tank for leaks these
57:57are things that renters can do
57:59so it was somewhat interesting
58:02troublesome to us that
58:03people who don't own their homes are not
58:04taking advantage of these low cost
58:06behaviors as well
58:07and then with curtailment we saw almost
58:09no demographic variation
58:10but we did see the most significant
58:12predictors were environmental motivation
58:14so people had to really care about the
58:17environment
58:18to do awful things like turning off
58:20lights when they left
58:22a room you had to be really dedicated to
58:24do that like you have to be a hardcore
58:26environmentalist to turn off a light
58:29when you're not in a room so um so we
58:31did find
58:32that that possibly there are different
58:34behavioral models and in psychology
58:36there are these too often
58:38psychology and beyond um psychology and
58:40uh
58:41i wanted to say austin wonderland wizard
58:43of oz often talk about these two models
58:46for behavior
58:47our head in our heart right a rational
58:48model and a moral model
58:50and the rational model is really one
58:52that targets
58:53economic incentives giving people
58:56rebates is it in my best interest
58:58so if we want people to conserve we want
58:59to make it in their financial
59:01or otherwise personal interest and the
59:03moral model says no way you want people
59:05to care and what we're seeing with
59:06conservation is that
59:07when we broke into these two dimensions
59:09we saw both models
59:10um but differentially predictive
59:14but we we wondered was it that simple um
59:19so we did see this distinction between
59:20curtailment and efficiency bear out in
59:22our data
59:23but it seemed to draw this line between
59:28suffering on one hand and spending on
59:30another
59:32and we thought does it have to be that
59:33way is this it are these are only two
59:35options
59:36to bundle up or drive slow which seems
59:40horrible right even worse than turning
59:41off lights or spend money
59:43are these really our options are they
59:45being framed this way or are they
59:47necessarily this way so are we missing
59:49something so what we did was we actually
59:51looked at the definitions themselves and
59:53we looked at the different um
59:55ways that these that these dimensions
59:57were defined and we found that they're
1:00:00defined primarily by two variables by
1:00:02cost and by frequency
1:00:05and if there are two variables that
1:00:06means there's four possible cells
1:00:08so we looked at these two and we saw
1:00:10that curtailment behaviors refer to
1:00:12frequent low-cost behaviors
1:00:14that makes sense things that you do a
1:00:16lot and that don't cost anything low to
1:00:18no
1:00:19and then efficiency tended to refer to
1:00:21high cost or frequent behaviors things
1:00:23that cost money but there's two missing
1:00:24cells here
1:00:25and this third cell we thought was
1:00:27really interesting that wasn't being
1:00:28talked about
1:00:29and if you look that it has been talked
1:00:31about a few authors have
1:00:33talked about maintenance but nobody in
1:00:35this century
1:00:36so we did see in the 80s a lot of people
1:00:38saying no there's a third dimension but
1:00:40nobody
1:00:41what happens often with language
1:00:42especially with dichotomies is we tend
1:00:44to just pick up steam and go it's black
1:00:46or it's white you're a dog person or a
1:00:47cat person
1:00:48um not noticing that there might be
1:00:50nuance and that there could be something
1:00:51lost in that
1:00:53we didn't really identify we haven't yet
1:00:55identified high cost frequent behaviors
1:00:57we feel like there's not a large market
1:00:59for
1:01:00behaviors that cost a lot that you have
1:01:02to spend every day
1:01:03so we're not that concerned about those
1:01:05if you can think of any let me know i'll
1:01:06pass it on to oprah
1:01:09but it is possible that there's this
1:01:10third dimension that we're overlooking
1:01:12that instead of driving slower buying an
1:01:14efficient vehicle we could
1:01:15put air in our tires instead of bundling
1:01:17up or putting insulation we can just
1:01:19plug some of those holes in the wall
1:01:20and there might be even more there are a
1:01:22few more recent studies that are looking
1:01:24at
1:01:24distinctions between building envelope
1:01:26between weatherization maintenance and
1:01:28are these psychologically different and
1:01:29can we can we better um
1:01:32predict and promote these behaviors
1:01:35so back to our findings we did see
1:01:39one variable and only one variable that
1:01:41predicted both curtailment and
1:01:43efficiency behavior
1:01:44and i was personally really excited
1:01:46about this very about
1:01:48this finding because other than this
1:01:50research
1:01:51one of the main things as professor
1:01:52stokel's mentioned that i study is the
1:01:54use of energy feedback
1:01:55and we found that the only variable that
1:01:57was predictive we didn't doctor this but
1:01:59we were happy to find it
1:02:00that was predictive of both types of all
1:02:02conservation behaviors was bill
1:02:04consciousness
1:02:04do people pay attention to their energy
1:02:06bill
1:02:08which we thought pointed really
1:02:10interestingly at um
1:02:11the potential of energy feedback and
1:02:13energy feedback i know professor
1:02:15stokel's talked about it a little bit
1:02:16but
1:02:17i think one really great place to learn
1:02:19about feedback is at the grocery store
1:02:21there are price tags everywhere there
1:02:23are bright yellow tags when things are
1:02:25on sale
1:02:26if you want information about about the
1:02:29nutritional information you can pick up
1:02:31any package because it's regulated
1:02:32that you have to get nutritional
1:02:34information and then when you leave
1:02:35you get this amazing piece of feedback
1:02:38you might have never thought of it that
1:02:39way
1:02:39called a receipt and it gives you in
1:02:42great detail the exact
1:02:43cost of everything you bought so if you
1:02:46wanted to spend less time
1:02:48less money the next time you went to the
1:02:49store you can look at this and say
1:02:52man margarine is expensive i'm just
1:02:55going to eat my corn with nothing on it
1:02:57or you might look at something else but
1:02:59imagine instead
1:03:00if you went to the grocery store you
1:03:02could walk in
1:03:04grab a cart fill it up with as much food
1:03:06as you wanted
1:03:08and just leave okay that sounds good but
1:03:11then imagine
1:03:12that at the end of the month you get a
1:03:13bill that looks like this
1:03:15thank you for shopping at safeway you
1:03:17now has 527
1:03:21and you have no idea how much anything
1:03:23costs how could you possibly make better
1:03:25decisions
1:03:26and you think to yourself i ate a lot of
1:03:28top ramen last month
1:03:29and i also also ate a lot of raspberries
1:03:32and i have no idea which one costs more
1:03:33and for those of you who don't pay your
1:03:35own grocery bills
1:03:36ramen is much cheaper than raspberries
1:03:39just so you know
1:03:40but this is exactly what happens in in
1:03:42the home we have almost no information
1:03:44about energy use
1:03:45we get this one silly bill at the end of
1:03:47the month with one number
1:03:48and we have no idea how much energy is
1:03:50being used and the cool thing is
1:03:52there's this awesome opportunity right
1:03:54now so professor stokel's talk showed
1:03:56some kind of
1:03:57old school kind of experimental door
1:04:00hangers that the experimenters would put
1:04:01in people's windows
1:04:02but we don't have to actually put little
1:04:05signs in people's windows after reading
1:04:06their meters
1:04:07this old school meter for the most part
1:04:10is being replaced with what are called
1:04:12smart meters and smart meters mean these
1:04:14old meters
1:04:15um the only way we could get information
1:04:17from one of them
1:04:18is that somebody would have to look at
1:04:19this dial and the way you would get this
1:04:21bill
1:04:22is the energy company would send
1:04:23somebody out in a truck with a clipboard
1:04:26and they'd read this number and then
1:04:28they'd subtract it from the number the
1:04:29month before and they would put it
1:04:31on that bill for you and now we can
1:04:33automatically send that information so
1:04:34it enables us
1:04:36and this can not only go directly to the
1:04:38utility but it can go directly into your
1:04:40home
1:04:40so we see this amazing opportunity for
1:04:42information from
1:04:44about our energy to be given about our
1:04:46energy use from this meter to be given
1:04:48directly back into us
1:04:49and as professor stokel said there's a
1:04:51team here that we've been collaborating
1:04:52with that have been designing systems
1:04:54and we've been testing them as well
1:04:56this actually um it allows real-time
1:04:58data this is uh the display from the uci
1:05:00at home system that professor david
1:05:02kirkby and the school of physics
1:05:03invented
1:05:04this one right here is the now defunct
1:05:06google power meter and then this is
1:05:08another
1:05:09in-home device and we can even
1:05:11disaggregate or disambiguate data
1:05:12because everything that uses electricity
1:05:14has
1:05:15what's called an electricity signature
1:05:16kind of like a fingerprint
1:05:18and what we can do is if we pull energy
1:05:21at
1:05:21small enough granular levels as far as
1:05:23temporal granularity
1:05:25we can actually distinguish between your
1:05:27xbox and your and your receiver so you
1:05:29can actually see how much is being used
1:05:30super cool stuff um so when we looked at
1:05:33past research we found over 100 studies
1:05:35have been conducted and overall
1:05:37feedback has been shown to be effective
1:05:40we also looked at energy
1:05:42at users and we did some research with
1:05:43about 86 active users of feedback
1:05:45and we found that they did say things
1:05:48like i had no idea how much energy
1:05:49computers used
1:05:51we changed our behavior and started
1:05:52installing power strips
1:05:54so we think feedback's effective we
1:05:57think feedback can be effective
1:05:59not always and so this is what we're
1:06:01starting to look at now this initial
1:06:03research
1:06:03we found both evidence of a rebound
1:06:05effect and diminishing utility
1:06:07and a rebound effect is the phenomenon
1:06:10at which people tend to consume more
1:06:12services when gains and efficiency are
1:06:14made so there are some people who have
1:06:16found when people switch to hybrid cars
1:06:18they sometimes drive even more miles or
1:06:20people said i've wound up using more
1:06:21energy when i see how little they use
1:06:24we also saw some diminished utility
1:06:25where people said i don't
1:06:27over half of our sample no longer use
1:06:29their devices i don't see a purpose for
1:06:30it anymore
1:06:31i checked every device it doesn't seem
1:06:34like continued useful
1:06:35so we're investigating how when does
1:06:38feedback work because we see in studies
1:06:39that it can
1:06:40so some of our next steps we're looking
1:06:42at message framing
1:06:43visual displays and types of information
1:06:46so message framing
1:06:47refers to how we frame the presentation
1:06:50of information in a way
1:06:51that encourages or discourages certain
1:06:54interpretations or others
1:06:55so we're looking at for example
1:06:59if we tell you that leaving your router
1:07:01on when not in use
1:07:04will save energy that might get
1:07:07some people to change their behavior but
1:07:10what if we told you we're not giving you
1:07:11a lot of information so how many of you
1:07:12have a wireless router at home
1:07:15and how many of you turn it off when you
1:07:16leave
1:07:19well you should it saves energy what if
1:07:21i told you instead it costs money if you
1:07:22leave it on
1:07:24that might be a more effective message
1:07:26what if i told you that a router left
1:07:28on all day uses .07 kilowatt hours of
1:07:30electricity
1:07:31real feedback oh it's a kilowatt hour
1:07:34right
1:07:35and 0.07 is a small number okay let's
1:07:37translate it to dollars
1:07:38all right that's not much beth you're
1:07:40not selling us right so what if we and
1:07:42this is all identical information it's
1:07:43just how it's framed
1:07:44a router left on all day this is true
1:07:46use the equivalent of 37 double a
1:07:48batteries batteries are not incredibly
1:07:49efficient
1:07:50or if i told you if all americans
1:07:52switched off their router when not in
1:07:53use
1:07:53we could save almost 3 billion dollars a
1:07:55year so there are lots of ways of
1:07:57presenting the exact same information
1:07:59that might
1:08:00again encourage or discourage certain
1:08:02behaviors we're also looking at how it's
1:08:04visually displayed so these are the
1:08:06exact same
1:08:06the exact same month of information
1:08:09given in a week or in a month
1:08:11and then with um help with things to
1:08:13help you get information about the
1:08:14weekend and then we're looking at
1:08:15different types of feedback and actually
1:08:17um one student in this class cassandra
1:08:20is cassandra here right there has been
1:08:23working on on a project where we've
1:08:24looked at over 200 devices heard about a
1:08:26half dozen other students
1:08:27looked at 200 devices in the market and
1:08:30are looking at how they're alike and how
1:08:31they're different
1:08:32and creating a database with our
1:08:33colleagues at calais t2
1:08:36so in closing energy efficiency
1:08:39as steve chu our energy secretary said
1:08:41it's not just low-hanging fruit it's
1:08:43literally the fruit hanging on the
1:08:44ground
1:08:45and we feel like psychology will enable
1:08:47us to see those dividends when
1:08:49engineering
1:08:50and economic solutions haven't and i'd
1:08:51be happy to talk to any of you about my
1:08:53research
1:08:54we always have openings feel free to
1:08:55email me if you're interested in getting
1:08:57involved thank you
1:09:08you

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