Motivating Changes in Behavior to Address Current Problems Facing Humanity:
Climate Change
Instructors:
Tom Robinson, Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
Carrie Armel, Postdoctoral Fellow, Economics and Psychology Departments
Cross-listed in:
Human Biology, Psychology, Earth Systems, the School of Medicine
Course Objectives.
A significant reduction in greenhouse gases can be achieved by motivating
individuals to modify their personal behavior (e.g., driving less). In the first
quarter of this course, findings and methods are reviewed from several fields that
have been most effective at changing behavior in the real world. This is
achieved through readings and discussions led by leaders in each field. In the
second quarter, students translate these principles into an intervention (e.g., at a
local high school) in an attempt to modify real world behavior. Students also
develop metrics and measure behavior in order to evaluate the efficacy of the
intervention. (This course has a service learning component.)
Students learn about findings and methodologies in these fields through readings
and lectures by leaders in the fields. The students also apply the principles they
have learned to developing a component of the intervention each week, with
feedback from the course instructors and other students. In the second quarter
of the course, the ideas developed in the first quarter are applied to a real world
intervention at a local high school. Students also participate in measuring
behaviors and evaluating the efficacy of the intervention.
, nine Stanford faculty develop a multidisciplinary approach to maximize behavior
change. The work has three aims: (1) To use survey and experimental work to
develop message content that motivates, facilitates, and reinforces target
behaviors. (2) To apply those findings in a real world setting, specifically through
a “Climate Change Reality TV Show” intervention aired in a high school. (3) To
employ analytical tools for characterizing the diffusion of norms in the population
in order to enhance the efficacy of future work. Meta-goals are to develop a
theoretical and methodological framework, and to derive individual and macro
behavioral principles, for use with new climate change messages, interventions,
and populations.
Required Reading:
2-3 articles relevant to the lectures will be assigned each week.
Course Schedule:
The course is a two quarter course, most likely offered winter and spring of 2007,
with the possibility of being offered yearly (in which case the “problem” may
vary).
The first course in the series meets once or twice weekly.
Would each class be composed mostly of speaker presentations and/or student
presentations? Would the student presentations be on readings for the day? Or
on assignments that they do each week to develop a component of the
intervention (related to the course content that week), so that by the end of the
quarter the whole intervention is worked out? And then part of each class is
spent discussing their proposed work?
1. Overview; course details; lecture on designing interventions to provide a
goal-directed approach through which the rest of the course content is
framed. (Robinson & Armel)
2. Defining the problem. The essentials of climate change. (Schneider &
Ehrlich).
3. Developing metrics, baselines, and ways of providing feedback. How to
identify target behaviors and overcoming barriers to them (Mastrandrea, a
comparison of the impact of various behaviors and also baselines
established by other organizations; Robinson behavioral health medicine
and survey work; Armel, public service announcement literature)
4. Educating in order to provide motivation (Shrager; perhaps Shavelson)
5. Relevant consumer behavior & advertising findings (Shiv); perhaps
relevant neuroscience findings (Shiv, Armel, & perhaps Brian Knutson)
6. Relevant social psychology, psychological research on the perception of
norms, traits of an effective spokesperson (Monin)
7. Social cognitive theory and education entertainment (Bandura); relevant
cinematic theory (Kris Samuelson)
8. Bringing it all together: designing an intervention (Robinson)
9. Implementing and evaluating an intervention (Robinson)
10. Studying the diffusion of norms (Rao, Ehrlich, perhaps Mark Granovetter)
The second course in the series has one discussion section each week to
discuss the success or failure of different approaches, to trouble-shoot, and to
develop/reassess plans for upcoming weeks.
Would the second quarter be more like fields work, would it also have a “lab”/
“discussion section”, or what?