Gauging public attitudes to the BBC’s “Perfect Storm 2030: Public attitudes”
Mark Easton wrote a good summary yesterday of the government’s work in trying to encourage people to adopt more “pro-environmental” behaviour. He references Defra’s work, which takes a social marketing approach, segmenting the UK population by their attitude towards the environment and choosing specific behaviours (like “install insulation” or “adopt lower impact diet”) that will suit them.
I’m glad he wrote his post, as I think Defra’s approach is novel. But what I’m particularly interested in is how people respond to knowing that central government are approaching behaviour change in this way; which might seem more redolent of an advertising company than a government department.
I’d love someone to release content analysis service for blog comments, but without having that at my disposal, I read the 31 comments that were posted by 9:31 this morning and divided them into the following groups:
- Issues about whether man-made climate change is real and the science certain
- Issues about the relationship between the state and individual
- Issues about individual human behaviour; our incentives and agency
The first section is not really of much interest, and simply reworks old ground.
The third section maps to about 10% of all comments which suggested, among other things, that adopting more pro-environmental behaviur was just not in human nature.
The middle section was the largest; at least a third of the comments fell into it. Comments argued that the government should set an example (Heathrow’s 3rd runway, the Department for Energy & Climate Changes’ apallingly energy-inefficient building etc.) before telling people what to do, and should treat people intelligently when it did so. Various comments also highlighted people’s willingness to change but poor existing infrastructure or policies that trapped them into environmentally damaging ways of life. This section was also the most strongly worded, with comments suggesting that the approach from government was Orwellian and could feed conspiracy theories about climate change.
What is the right way of developing effective behaviour change interventions and policies? Writing from a design perspective I immediately think of public service innovation companies like thinkpublic or Participle. Could a co-design approach to behaviour change interventions help improve the fractured relationship between the individual and the state?
Comments
4 Comments on Gauging public attitudes to the BBC’s “Perfect Storm 2030: Public attitudes”
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Steven Johnson on
Wed, 9th Sep 2009 7:47 pm
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Jamie Young on
Thu, 10th Sep 2009 10:41 am
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Steven Johnson on
Thu, 10th Sep 2009 8:43 pm
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Pamela Holmes on
Mon, 16th Nov 2009 4:28 pm
Hi Jamie
This post touches on what I consider to be the elephant in the behaviour change room and something very close to my heart. As Creative Director of a social marketing agency I’m involved in a number of projects that are making real progress in changing behaviours around a host of complex social issues (smoking cessation, obesity, sexual health, breastfeeding initiation etc).
However, as a design thinker at heart, I’m starting to brush up against a number of issues that raise doubt as to whether ‘marketing’ is an appropriate paradigm for pro-social behaviour change.
Very briefly (I’m currently writing a longer piece around this issue which I’ll post as soon as I finish it), there are surface issues regarding the terminology (’marketing’ as the fuel for consumerist forest fire), deeper issues concerned with how the ‘meaning’ of marketing has been distorted through its ‘use’ (the notion that its about perceptions not products), but perhaps more fundamental issues relating to the conceptual foundation of the marketing paradigm (do we want persuade to initiate a value exchange or empower to enable self-realisation?).
This then raises the burning question as to whether the design paradigm is more conducive, especially with the rise of ‘design thinking’, co-creation and multidisciplinary approaches? My hunch is that a new paradigm will emerge out of the positive aspects of both and I think both communities, social marketing and design, need to open up dialogue to actively promote this hybrid, rather than wait for it to emerge passively. I’m already doing this through my work at The Hub, lectures and writing, but would encourage social designers and marketers alike to join the debate. Please get in touch with any thoughts: steven@hub-marketing.co.uk.
Hi Steven – thanks for getting in touch and thanks for telling us about your thinking. From my personal perspective I do agree that “marketing” is a bit of a misnomer for bringing about social change in response to big problems like sustainability. I think that “design” is a term less loaded with other connotations, but still going through a bit of flux as it becomes more associated with a process like “design thinking” (or service design) than with the physical products that used to define design. I’ve just had a quick look through my research folder and came across two papers that I found helpful in the past. You’ve probably read them or similar ones, but just in case anyone else follows the conversation and is interested:
http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cluster=17680283583981448297&hl=en
and
http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=%22redefining+social+marketing%22
Are both quite helpful.
Thanks Jamie.
I agree that there’s also a lack of clarity surrounding design, but that the misperceptions are likely to be more benign that those associated with ‘marketing’. I think currently many people assume ‘design’ is simply the discipline to which they are closest to (coming from a communications background, most of my colleagues working for the commercial sector have no reason to assume that ‘design’ is not synonymous with graphic design) and I’m hoping the surge of interest in ‘Design’ (i.e.inherently multi-disciplinary, human centred etc) driven by the rising popularity of ‘design thinking’ as a tool for driving innovation and generating value in the commercial sector, will popularise this more holistic understanding.
Needless to say, the design community itself has a large role to play in helping crystalise this emerging discipline into a form simple enough to be communicated clearly to commissioners, policy makers etc.
Many thanks for the links.
It’s good to hear that there is a ’surge of interest’ in design to drive innovation and generate value in the commercial sector. What we need to see is more interest and commitment in the public sector and in particular, around the design of services. While there are some shining examples of this, too few people working the health and social care sectors are aware of the value, importance and opportunities offered by design. Yes, design can contribute to the improvement of services but even more exciting is the richness of partnership between those involved in delivery and those who need additional support when design is involved.
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