In recent years, the issue of climate change has increasingly become a serious global concern. The Earth is experiencing a rapid increase in global temperatures, as well as deforestation, desertification, melting of the polar ice caps, and sea level rise, with 9 of the 10 warmest years on record occurring since 2000 (NASA, 2017). The scope of this global problem is not limited to just the scientific mechanisms behind the change but also has social, political, and economic implications. The rapid increase in global carbon emissions and resulting warming trends are likely due to anthropogenic activities (IPCC, 2007), indicating that attempts to remedy this environmental crisis must aim at changing human behavior, addressing the psychology behind our behavioral interactions with the environment. Environmental psychologists seek to understand what causes people to participate in environmentally friendly behaviors, for the purpose of developing methods to influence human behavior in a pro-environmental fashion using social norms and their …show more content…
psychological impact. Social norms are known to have a powerful influence on human behavior, and many recent studies in environmental psychology have explored their impacts concerning pro-environmental behavior.
If using social norms to influence people to act pro-environmentally, interventions could be developed to help alleviate environmental degradation through behavioral changes. One recently conducted field experiment sought to determine how the use of different types of social norms may influence energy conservation behaviors of homes in San Marcos, California (Cialdini, Schultz, Goldstein, Nolan, & Griskevicius, 2016). The study examined the constructive, destructive, and reconstructive powers of using descriptive and injunctive normative messages to influence behavior. A descriptive norm refers to the perceived prevalence of a behavior among the population, while an injunctive norm refers to what is perceived to be socially acceptable
behavior. In this study, the energy use of 209 San Marcos homes in California was monitored and messages were written to each household containing either descriptive, descriptive and injunctive, or no normative messages about their current energy use compared to their neighbors. The descriptive normative messages informed the household of their energy consumption and if it was above or below the average consumption of the neighborhood. This local descriptive norm indicated to the participants if their household energy consumption deviated from the average neighbor, theoretically influencing them to change their energy-use behavior to align with that of their neighbors. The injunctive normative message was always used with the descriptive normative message, and either had a smiley or sad face next to the household’s energy consumption, indicating that their energy use behavior was either socially approved or disapproved. The change in energy use was tracked both short-term and long-term, to determine if the use of these normative messages had long-lasting effects on behavior. The hypothesis of this field experiment was that the descriptive normative message would cause participants who used a lot of energy to decrease their energy consumption and cause households with low energy use to increase their consumption, each group moving toward the average neighborhood consumption. This hypothesis was supported by the experimental results, demonstrating that descriptive norms can affect environmental behavior, but can have either constructive or destructive results, depending on the original behavior of the person exposed to the norm. It was also hypothesized that if a household’s energy consumption was below the community average, the destructive power of the descriptive norm, or the boomerang effect, would be reversed if an injunctive normative message came with it, indicating that their deviation from the neighborhood average was socially acceptable. This hypothesis was also supported by the results of the experiment, providing a powerful implication that descriptive normative messages in conjunction with injunctive normative messages have a reconstructive power, counteracting the destructive boomerang effect of the descriptive norm. The long-term results indicated that even four weeks after the initial intervention, the influence of normative messages were still found to be strong. The influence of social norms on environmental behaviors may differ depending on numerous factors, one being the level of personal responsibility felt by the person participating in the behavior. The influence of descriptive norms in conjunction with different levels of personal responsibility was the focus of a study conducted in public restrooms where the energy conservation behavior of turning off the lights when leaving the restroom was measured, manipulating exposure to descriptive norms and personal responsibility (Dwyer, Maki, & Rothman, 2015). The study was conducted by monitoring if a person turned the lights off upon leaving the restroom depending on their exposure to a descriptive norm. The different conditions studied either had the lights on or off when the participant entered the restroom, indicating a descriptive norm that people who used this restroom kept the lights on or off when the restroom was not in use. The lights-off condition forced individuals to turn on the lights in the restroom, adding a level of personal responsibility for turning on the lights. A third condition was also studied, which involved a confederate turning the lights off and then back on, as if they had just noticed the participant was waiting to use the restroom. This third condition provided a descriptive norm that people turned the lights off as they left that restroom as well as displaced the personal responsibility of turning on the lights from the participant to the confederate. The results of the experiment supported the hypothesis that participants who were exposed to the lights-off condition would turn off the lights more often than participants exposed to the lights-on condition due to their respective descriptive norm. It was also hypothesized that participants subject to the condition in which the confederate turned on the lights would be less likely to turn off the lights than those who had to turn the lights on themselves because the sense of personally responsibility was transferred from them onto the confederate. This hypothesis was also supported by the results of the experiment even though both conditions included exposure to the descriptive norm that people turned the lights off upon leaving the restroom, suggesting that a sense of personal responsibility plays a key role in pro-environmental behavior.
Bill McKibben's "The Environmental Issue from Hell" argues that climate change is a real and dire concern for humanity. His essay deals with the methods and persuasive arguments needed to spur American citizens and the government on to change to more eco-friendly choices. The arguments he proposes are based largely upon emotional appeals calling for empathy and shame, and examples of what in our daily lives is adding to the changes we're seeing in the climate.
Deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs (Kendall, 2012). Our experiment will study the behavioral deviance of a social norm. Sociologists use symbolic interactionism to study face-to-face interactions. We are expected to follow these certain unwritten rules of behavior telling us the way that we should act in certain situations. The social norm or folkway I chose to break was that of invading an individual’s personal space. See Figure 1.0 showing the proximity generally utilized by Americans, according to Edward T.Hall. Personal space is the region surrounding a person, approximately 18 inches, which they regard as psychologically theirs. People value their personal space, and feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when their personal space is encroached (Personal space, n.d.). We walked around to find the best scenario and individuals to interject our teammate in purposefully invading their comfort zone.
In society, it's difficult to go against the norm. Individuals are compelled to act a specific way, or look a specific way in order to be accepted. For instance, teenagers may encounter pressure from their peers to partake in specific exercises that may not be moral, since they feel the need to fit in. This weight of conformity isn't just present in reality; it can be found in literature as well. The story "St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell depicts that in order to conform to society, individuals abandon their selflessness and compassion and become selfish and apathetic.
Fighting climate change is hard, and thus it requires hard decisions and hard lifestyle changes to make a serious impact. According to the duo, textbook and government agency writers’ preponderance toward writing about small- to medium-impact actions against climate change may emanate from the want to promote easy-to-perform actions that are frequent and thus could lead to other behavioral changes. However, Wynes and Nicholas write that such a positive “spillover effect” from smaller actions does not happen as frequently as many hope, but that early research results on “high-commitment, pro-social behaviors are more likely to cause further positive spillover, which supports an emphasis on high-impact actions as a way to change overall norms.” Promoting or advocating high-impact actions such as eating a plant-based diet or eschewing air travel might be politically unpopular, Wynes and Nicholas write, but that does not mean it should be left out of the school lessons of the generation most likely and able to take on such behavior
There are many things that influence our behavior from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are implicit or explicit rules that govern how we behave in society (Maluso, class notes). Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us feeling uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens.
Social work has long recognized the relationship between the behavior of an individual and the environment in which the individual interacts (Hutchison, 2008). Human behavior theories offer a framework to organize, interpret and understand this relationship (Hutchison, 2008). For this case study, the following three theories will be examined for relevancy: Life cycle theory, role theory and resiliency theory.
The objective of this paper is to discuss Social Norms and their impact on Social Action. To start, we will be defining what social action is, which Weber says that “Action is “social” insofar as its subjective meaning takes account of the behaviours of others and is thereby oriented in its course.” (Basic Sociological Terms [BST], p. 103). What this simply means is that not all action taken is social, any act that takes the account of how other individuals will react or behave to the action is defined to be social. An example of social action is when telling a joke in a group of friends, the individual says this joke which accounts for the dynamic of the group, its appropriateness, whether the group is the target audience for said joke, and if the delivery is right. A joke that displays the sport of hockey in an ill manner may not be appropriate to a group of people watching the
The book I chose to read for this book report was Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warning by Bjorn Lomborg. This book was originally published in 2007. Lomborg offered many perspectives on the subject of global warming and climate change, stating that it will cost millions and billions of dollars. However, even with the amount of work and money put into stopping the global warming problem, there may be little impact on the world. Lomborg argues that perhaps humans should start with smaller steps, such as fighting diseases or maintaining a safe, fresh water supply. Doing so could allow a lower death rate and fix the world on a drastic measure. The author believes that with a clear mind and an organized mindset, humans can potentially help the world become a richer and healthy environment.
Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group.
Breaching the norms of society is an experimental activity done to imbue participants with slight discomfort and unease. In this experiment, one of the subtleties on a college campus was shattered by entering a casual and predictable environment in an unpredictable way. Essentially, the norm being focused on was the way people function in public environments. People generally go about their own business in public, trying not to deviate from what everyone else is doing. Thus, they say things that are expected of them, gesticulate the same way as everyone else, and sit in the same places as everyone else. Straying from these formalities tends to upset people, generally because one tends to appear ostentatious or insecure if they
Lately the concept of social norms, common rules of behaviors, has engaged the interest of a numerous philosophers, who are concerned with understanding the rational actors’ behavior. Kennedy and Brown addresses the concern from different aspects, they are mutually disturbed by the same social norm questions, specifically in the theory of human behavior development that is significant to the construction of legal institutions. In their endeavor to account for social norms they both argue that Human Rights pose challenges for politics. This is far from absolute, Human Rights in a way, present difficulties to politics but it is in fact social norms which pose the most critical problem for politics.
Additionally, some people simply don’t believe in the concept of global climate change. Being a creature of habit leads to discomfort in change. Therefore when told that certain societal change is needed to better the globe, one might disregard and falsify such claims. “When citizens conclude they are being asked to change their daily behaviors..they may respond in doctrinaire ways - looking to information and sources to reinforce their views rather than challenge them” (DiMento and Doughman 2). This reasoning helps support the claim because, if someone is told to change lifestyles to better the planet (in regards to climate change) they may completely disregard the idea and focus on ways to support their own opinions.
How the aspects of sexuality, gender and class Influence Social and Legal Norms Introduction Conflicts and behavioral misconducts in the society are not uncommon, therefore conformity and order is important for the society’s existence and continuity. There is need to regulate the group as well as the individual behavior to maintain the social order. The local government as well as the society should emphasize on the accepted, usual and normal course of conduct defined by the social mechanisms established in the society. Norms are cultural traditions, customs and values that define the kind of behaviors an individual within the society should abide, and the behaviors not acceptable within the society.
As a society we must understand the social and cultural consequences of this impact and reasons why it may be too late for a change on a global scale. The earth is a large mixing bowl of a variety of culture and different lifestyle. This being said, the way people live in certain conditions contribute to the global issue of climate change. Forinstance, through analyzing the country India as the world’s second largest populated country with over 1.3 billion people. This densely populated country integrated with regional poverty contributes to a number of cultural and societal issues that affect the environment. Furthermore, we see India being one of the leading air polluted country due to the amount of illegal dumping, carbon emissions, and overall not caring for the environment. Although many non governmental organizations are taking action to fight climate change, due to these social and cultural inability to attempt to rid or resolve the growing anthropocenic issue is out of reach to the extent of great future consequences such as the rising sea-level problem amongst many
The Evidence that Socialisation Plays a Major Part in Shaping Human Behaviour Socialisation is the lifelong process by which human behaviour is shaped through experience in social institutions (e.g. family, which is a crucial factor in primary socialisation). Through socialization, individuals learn the values, norms (formal and informal rules), and beliefs of a given society. In considering the nature of the self, it is necessary to include a still more fundamental social scientific issue – the extent to which human beings are being formed by biological inheritance (i.e. genetic determinism), or through socialisation (i.e. cultural determinism); the issue called nature-nurture debate. Another way to put this is the difference between instinct and learned behaviour, where instinct is inherited, and learned behaviour acquired through socialisation.