Using behavioural tools to support economic instruments for climate

change resilience

Dr Amanda Kennedy and Wanida PhromlahThe Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law

University of New EnglandImage: Pixomar /

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Introduction• “In my next life I'm going to be a psychologist. If I can

make myself work harder at uni than I did last time, I'll become an academic and start a new branch of the discipline called PPP - public policy psychology.”– Ross Gittins, ‘Psychologists

needed to help implement policies’, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 4 2010

• Where credible market based instruments are absent or fail, what else can we do to support climate change resilience?

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The Behavioural Effectiveness of Economic Instruments

What happens where taxation instruments suffer from institutional impediments, or where they are otherwise delayed or not pursued?Consider the recent situation in Australia (response to the Henry Tax Review and shelved CPRS) -‘First best’ policy responses were derailed- Influence of political economy

What happens when ‘first best’

instruments are feasible?

- Reliance on one instrument and one point

of intervention is not likely to be optimal in dealing with complex

multi-party systems- But instrumental myopia is

preventing consideration of a range of approaches

- Is it possible to move beyond pitting taxation against other

instruments to craft a total system strategy?

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Community-Based Social Marketing

• Behavior change initiatives are most effective when they are delivered at the community level using direct personal contact

• Focus upon removing barriers to behavioral change while concurrently promoting the benefits of change – Use of behavior change tools drawn

from social science, including seeking commitments from participants; offering prompts as mental cues to encourage change and its benefits; developing and reinforcing norms; using captivating, credible and effective communication strategies; and using incentives that support the behavior change sought

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Communication

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Commitment

• Seeking commitment to an initially small request can build commitments to larger requests– Individuals like to be perceived as behaving consistently

• Public commitments are particularly significant– See Pallak, M.S., Cook, D.A., and

Sullivan, J.J. “Commitment and Energy Conservation.” In Applied Social Psychology Annual, L. Bickman (ed.), Sage: Beverley Hills, CA, 1980; 235-253.

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Prompts

• Prompts can remind people to engage in activities that they might otherwise forget

• A prompt must be noticeable, self- explanatory, and in close proximity to the site where the targeted behavior is to be carried out– See Austin, J., Hatfield, D.B., Grindle, A.C.,

& Bailey, J.S. “Increasing recycling in office environments: The effects of specific, informative cues.” Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 1993, 26 (2), 247-253.

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Social Norms

• Social norms “…are informal obligations that are enforced through social sanctions or rewards”

• The development of social norms have been found to “…not only spur but also guide action in direct and meaningful ways”

– See Schultz P.W., Nolan, J.M., Cialdini, R.B., Goldstein, N.J., Griskevicius, V. “The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms.” Psychological Science 2007, 18 (5), 429-434; Carlson, A.E. “Social Norms and Individual Environmental Behavior.” Environmental Law Reporter 2005, 35(11), 10763-10769; and Stern, P.C. “Understanding Individuals’ Environmentally Significant Behavior.” Environmental Law Reporter 2005, 35(11), 10785-10790.

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Incentives

• Incentives are most effective where the incentive and the behavior are closely paired, and where they are visible

– Positive incentives have been shown to be more effective than imposed disincentives

• See Wang, T.H. & Katzev, R.D. “Group commitment and resource conservation: Two field experiments on promoting recycling.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 1990, 20 (4), 265-275.

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Opportunities for behavioural tools to strengthen economic

instruments• Where economic approaches are

inadequate or absent, the behaviour change tools offered by community-based social marketing can offer an alternative means of changing behavioural practices

• In some cases, they may even be better suited than economic tools, particularly where such instruments do not attack the right behavioural drivers

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Conclusion

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