Leveraging social cognition to promote effective climate change mitigation

Boon-Falleur, Melusine; Grandin, Aurore; Baumard, Nicolas; Chevallier, Coralie

doi:10.1038/s41558-022-01312-w

Cited by 25 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 107 publications

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“…One can speculate that this could be the case if the active behaviour is individually costly and perceived as a moral duty. In this case, the active individuals behave as cooperators whose efforts (measured in terms of opportunity cost) are influenced the most by the observation of the others’ efforts [35, 5].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human-environment feedback and the consistency of proenvironmental behaviour

Ecotiere

Billiard

André

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Addressing global environmental crises such as climate change requires the adoption of consistent proenvironmental behaviour by a large part of a population. Identifying the main determinants of proenvironmental behavioural consistency remains challenging. Here, we ask how the individual assessment of environmental actions interacts with social norms to shape the degree of behavioural consistency, and how this feeds back to the perceived environmental state. We develop a stochastic individual-based model involving the coupled dynamics of a population and its perceived environment, assuming that individuals can switch between two alternate behaviours differing in their environmental impact. After showing that the system can be approximated by ordinary differential equations and associated fluctuations, we study the population-environment stationary state. We show that behavioural consistency depends on the balance between individual assessment and social interactions while being little sensitive to the environmental reactivity. Inconsistent proenvironmental behaviour caused by the environmental feedback can be countered by the social context provided the proenvironmental social norm is strong enough. Establishing such a social norm (through e.g. communication or public policy) thus appears critical for consistent proenvironmental behaviour. Noticingly, the combined social and environmental feedbacks then prove effective at establishing consistent proenvironmental behaviour even at high individual cost.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human-environment feedback and the consistency of proenvironmental behaviour

Ecotiere

Billiard

André

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Here, social interactions are also rewarding. Thus it has been suggested that climate-friendly behavior promoted by one’s peers can encourage other to shift toward the same type of behavior ( Boon-Falleur et al, 2022 ). Since the DA system has also been identified in social behavior encoding ( Klein and Platt, 2013 ; Gunaydin et al, 2014 ; Munuera et al, 2018 ), using social strategies to curve climate change sounds like a valid approach.…”

Section: Suggestion 2: Promote Climate-friendly Behavior Through Intr...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can we tackle climate change by behavioral hacking of the dopaminergic system?

Burguière

2022

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Climate change is an undeniable fact that will certainly affect millions of people in the following decades. Despite this danger threatening our economies, wellbeing and our lives in general, there is a lack of immediate response at both the institutional and individual level. How can it be that the human brain cannot interpret this threat and act against it to avoid the immense negative consequences that may ensue? Here we argue that this paradox could be explained by the fact that some key brain mechanisms are potentially poorly tuned to take action against a threat that would take full effect only in the long-term. We present neuro-behavioral evidence in favor of this proposal and discuss the role of the dopaminergic (DA) system in learning accurate prediction of the value of an outcome, and its consequences regarding the climate issue. We discuss how this system discounts the value of delayed outcomes and, consequently, does not favor action against the climate crisis. Finally, according to this framework, we suggest that this view may be reconsidered and, on the contrary, that the DA reinforcement learning system could be a powerful ally if adapted to short-term incentives which promote climate-friendly behaviors. Additionally, the DA system interacts with multiple brain systems, in particular those related to higher cognitive functions, which can adjust its functions depending on psychological, social, or other complex contextual information. Thus, we propose several generic action plans that could help to hack these neuro-behavioral processes to promote climate-friendly actions.

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“…Climate change is nowadays considered a serious threat that is already underway. Despite this growing awareness, efforts to mitigate climate change have fallen short in recent decades [1]. However, there are clear signs of a reaction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Energy Cost Assessment of Future Energy Scenarios: A Case Study on San Pietro Island

et al. 2022

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The need for a clean and affordable energy supply is a major challenge of the current century. The tough shift toward a sustainable energy mix becomes even more problematic when facing realities that lack infrastructures and financing, such as small islands. Energy modeling and planning is crucial at this early stage of the ecological transition. For this reason, this article aims to improve an established long-run energy model framework, known as “OSeMOSYS,” with an add-on tool able to estimate different types of Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE): a real and theoretical LCOE of each technology and a real and theoretical system LCOE. This tool fills a gap in most modeling frameworks characterized by a lack of information when evaluating energy costs and aims at guiding policymakers to the most appropriate solution. The model is then used to predict future energy scenarios for the island of San Pietro, in Sardinia, which was chosen as a case study. Four energy scenarios with a time horizon from 2020 to 2050—the Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario, the Current Policy Projection (CPP) scenario, the Sustainable Growth (SG) scenario, and the Self-Sufficient-Renewable (SSR) scenario—are explored and ranked according to the efforts made in them to achieve an energy transition. Results demonstrates the validity of the tool, showing that, in the long run, the average LCOE of the system benefits from the installation of RES plants, passing from 49.1 €/MWh in 2050 in the BAU scenario to 48.8 €/MWh in the ambitious SG scenario. On the other hand, achieving carbon neutrality and the island’s energy independence brings the LCOE to 531.5 €/MWh, questioning the convenience of large storage infrastructures in San Pietro and opening up future work on the exploration of different storage systems.

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Leveraging social cognition to promote effective climate change mitigation

Cited by 25 publications

References 107 publications

Human-environment feedback and the consistency of proenvironmental behaviour

Human-environment feedback and the consistency of proenvironmental behaviour

Can we tackle climate change by behavioral hacking of the dopaminergic system?

An Energy Cost Assessment of Future Energy Scenarios: A Case Study on San Pietro Island

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