Attitude vs. Behaviour

Environmentalists will be happy to hear that in the UK, new registrations of 4x4s are down by 18% from May 2007 and, amid plunging US sales, Hummer’s owner, GM are reviewing the future of the Hummer brand.

However, let’s not get carried away – it seems to be the high price of oil and the effect on motorists’ pockets, not a sudden environmental awakening that is driving this trend. Simple economics would suggest that should the price of fuel fall in the future would increase the sales of gas-guzzlers. Clearly, this is an example of consumers being priced out of the market therefore changing their behaviour without changing their attitude.

Even though climate change sceptics are now pretty thin on the ground, there is something preventing our society from shifting to a more sustainable future. Cognitive dissonance is the term being used by psychologists to describe the human behaviour that prevents them from changing their attitudes readily.

History can tell us a lot about the problem with cognitive dissonance in relation to human behaviour. When Galileo first asserted that it was the Sun, not the Earth that was at the centre of the universe, so shocking were his views, that he was judged to be close to heresy and later commuted to house arrest by the Church authorities. It wasn’t until 31 October 1992 that Pope John Paul II officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary.

So what has cognitive dissonance got to do with climate change? As a society, for hundreds of years, we have focused on wealth generation and consumerism as the route to happiness. But now, we know that the effects of this unchecked consumption are destroying our planet. It is one thing to get people to accept that climate change exists and that it’s a problem, it’s something else entirely for people to accept that they too are part of it and to get them to change their behaviour to combat it.

There is a secondary dilemma here, because innovation is hampered by our reluctance to change our attitudes. In order to tackle climate change, it is said that we need the tools of tomorrow. But what if we already have some of those tools and we don’t know how to use them? Until attitudes change, tools will not be effective. A culture that fosters innovation and creativity is crucial if the status quo is to be challenged.

A perhaps surprising case in point is the tin can opener invented in 1810. Amazingly, it took another 50 years before the tin can opener was invented due to a lack of innovation and change in attitudes. As small as this may seem it signifies how barriers to change can inhibit our progress and success. Surely this mistake could not be repeated today. Or could it?

Communication has a major role to play in breaking down the barrier of cognitive dissonance. The challenge is to develop ways of changing attitudes without making people feel uncomfortable with what you are telling them. The responsibility lies with industry, NGO’s and agencies like Clownfish, who help brands engage with consumers in a ways that create a long-term shift in values by posing questions, exploring solutions, yet efficiently communicating the message, while educating consumers to make the right decision.

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