Accelerating the Adoption of Climate Change Prevention and

Adaptation Measures: The Use of Opinion Leader

StrategiesDo Kyun Kim, Ph.D & Edward Maibach, Ph.D

Topics

1. The basis for why and how opinion leaders are influential;

2. The proven effectiveness of opinion leader strategies in other domains of society (e.g., AIDS prevention);

3. The potential to harness opinion leaders to promote climate change prevention and adaptation practices; &

4. Research needed to effectively “scale-up” opinion leaders interventions.

Diffusion of innovations

• A process in which an innovation is communicated through certain communication channels over time among the members of a social system.

• An Innovation?: Information, ideas, products, or practices that are perceived as new by an individual or a unit of adoption.

• How do we accelerate people’s adoption of climate change prevention and adaptation behavior?

Opinion Leader Defined

• A relatively small number of people in any community who are influential in their communities by virtue of both their perceived expertise and their friendly relationships with a large number of other people in their communities.

• In people’s informal and interpersonal communication networks, they play a critical role in determining the speed and success of diffusion of innovations in their communities.

Media Vs. Opinion Leaders

• Media as a source of information

• Opinion Leaders as a determinant of trustworthiness of information and implementation of climate change prevention and adaptation BEHAVIORS.

• Learning by Observation and Imitation of Opinion Leader’s behaviors.

Identifying Opinion Leaders

• Social Network Analysis- Arrows indicate directions of communication between people and the thickness of the arrows indicates the different strengths of communication

Mary

Joe

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David

Kathy

Kim

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Proven Effectiveness of

Opinion Leader Strategy• Effectiveness of opinion leader interventions (Atkins,

Graczyk, Frazier, & Abdul-Adil, 2003; Elliott et al., 1997; Gifford et al., 1999; Guadagnoli, 2000; Hodnett et al., 1996; Lomas et al., 1991; Soumerai et al., 1998; Valente et al., 2003…etc.)

- HIV/AIDS prevention information diffusion among risky groups, Medical knowledge diffusion among physicians, Technology diffusion among engineers, Business Marketing…etc.

• The validity and effectiveness of the opinion leadership measurement (Hiss, MacDonald, & Davis, 1978; Bhandari et al., 2003)

Potentials to harness Opinion Leaders

• Higher likelihood to bring BEHAVIORAL changes

• Higher persuasiveness (Cialdini et al., 1990; Fazio and Zanna, …)

• Cost effectiveness

• Methodological rigorousness and Realistic strategies (SNA)

A Direction for Future Studies

•Scaling-up!!!

“OPINION LEADER

DIFFUSION STRATEGY”