The Oil Drum

34 comments on Social Norms, Climate Change, and the Energy Crisis We Face

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

ET on September 30, 2007 - 12:57pm

A good analysis of social behavior...however, I see a possible dark side to what Prof. Cialdini is saying. Societies that try to tightly control the news use the kind of reasoning here, reasoning that may be described as an attempt to avoid the 'self-fulfilling prophecy.' The rationale is that if the media puts out only good news, the actual bad news will go away. Conversely, putting out bad news encourages the occurrence of more bad news. Beware self-censorship of 'bad' news or, for that matter, institutional censorship of any kind.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

biologist on September 30, 2007 - 3:25pm

yes, this approach can be discribed with one word:

Propaganda.

Propaganda works as long as it does not come into obvious conflict with reality, at which point people start to deeply resent it. Wonder whether this approach would have worked in, say, Dresden, Germany, short after Communism fell. In the USA, many uses of propaganda that would be obvious to Europeans go unnoticed because people have never been exposed directly to pervasive propaganda that is in conflict with reality, and therefore have not developed defense mechanisms.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Alfred on October 1, 2007 - 5:24am

In the USA, many uses of propaganda that would be obvious to Europeans go unnoticed because people have never been exposed directly to pervasive propaganda that is in conflict with reality, and therefore have not developed defense mechanisms.

This is absolutely correct.

Furthermore, within Europe you can observe the same phenomenon. As a simple example, let's look at the attitude of Europeans as regards public statements by the State of Israel and its antoganists. Essentially, the closer in Europe they are to this region, the more sceptical and cynical is their attitude towards official utterances by either parties. At least that is my observation.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

CMDC on October 1, 2007 - 11:11am

The difference between what we are talking about here and propaganda is that propaganda is a lie. I agree that it is extremely powerful, as we saw in the run-up to the Iraq debacle. The mainstream media chanted the drumbeat "It is inevitable. It is inevitable. It is inevitable." until everyone believed it. The war was not necessary, not inevitable, it was a choice made by a small number of notorious liars for reasons that are still being disputed.

What the researchers are talking about, in contrast, is framing the truth, which is very different from propaganda. Addition they don't seem to be advocating specifically government-run messages. It is a paper on framing methods in general.

I agree with the researchers and I think we should take advantage of whatever advertising methods are most effective. For example:

If an environmental or small car company ran an add saying that SUV sales have been dropping steadily for the past 3 years (which is true), viewers would see the following SUV commercial (0% financing, $5000 cashback, Make no payments until 2009!) as what it really is: a desperate attempt to rake in a few more marks by a conman who knows the end is nigh.

We should not abandon the truth as so many corporations and governments have for short-term gain/profit. We should, however, use the most effective means we have of changing behaviors. Although we may not have absolute numbers, emphasis on the high rate of growth of green behaviors/companies will encourage people to "get in on the ground floor" and in time we will have the social norm to help us.

As long as we stick to true statistics and facts I see no reason not to use this research for our advantage.

Any solution to peak oil, global warming and poverty will depend on wide or universal access to contraception.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

The contents below are paid advertisements. Their appearance does not imply an endorsement by The Oil Drum.

“Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.”

—George Eliot