It’s really not your fault: Why it’s hard to act sustainably

Mar 1

If you’re like me, you like to know the science behind things to help make sense of the world. I find that once I understand the laws or rules that govern things, like how or why people do something, it’s a bit easier for me to use that info in a practical way. Or, it helps me to understand my world better generally, which is always a plus!

In any case, I wanted to share some interesting facts about how our behavior is, and is not, influenced by very common things. For today’s topic, I wanted to share the research on how learning and education impacts people’s choices, and importantly, the implications of that research.

Does that sound nerdy?! Good! 😀 I’ll make it as simple and practical as possible, I promise.

Let’s dive in!

What we know about human behavior…

Ok, so there’s A LOT of science on human behavior and I’m not going to try to summarize it all here lol 😂 But, here’s what’s important to know for our purposes today, from the lens of behaviorism (note: I am not an exclusive “behaviorist” but it has shaped how I approach human behavior a lot):

Human behavior, aka actions, are governed by the same principles of animal behavior

Generally, we behave based on something called a three-term contingency (um, come again? A three term whatchamacallit??) Don’t worry! There’s no test!

This looks like this: A + B = C

A = Antecedent - a thing that happens before the behavior or action
B = Behavior - the thing that you do or action you take
C = Consequence - the thing you get for doing the behavior

—> If you get “good” consequences, you’ll do that action more

—> If you get “bad” consequences, you’ll do that action less

—> “Good” and “bad” are 100% subjective and sometimes underlying motivations that we don’t even consciously recognize make something “bad” feel “good,” meaning a consequence may look objectively “bad” but ends up fulfilling another subconscious need that increases the likelihood of the behavior happening again in the future…this can get pretty deep but for now, just trust me on this!

Note: I have “good” and “bad” in quotes because this is overly-simplified 🙂 and I’m not actually trying to assign moral value to anything! In this case, “good” means you will do that thing more and “bad” means you’ll do that thing less.

Just like consequences determine how often you will do something, antecedents determine how likely you are to do that thing. Basically, the antecedent sets the stage for the behavior to occur.

Antecedents come in many forms:

Some are like cues and signal to you, hey! It’s time to do this thing. Like, when your dog paces around by the door and you recognize that means they need to go out. Your dog’s pacing acts as a cue to let them out.
Some are called motivating operations, or more simply motivations, and create a situation where you are more likely to do something. For example, hunger is a motivating operation. If you’re hungry, you’re more likely to do something that leads to eating!
Other antecedents can make something easier or harder to do - like if you purposely lock your junk food in a bin that only opens at a certain time (makes it harder to eat) but pack your gym bag and put it in your car the night before a scheduled workout so you can get to the class right after work (makes it easier to workout).

Why things don’t always go as we think they should

Sometimes we don’t have control over the antecedents and they can become barriers to doing a behavior, make another, competing behavior more likely to occur, or don’t cue the behavior to occur at all
Sometimes we experience competing motivations, and the stronger motivation wins out over the weaker one
Sometimes consequences to behaviors are not immediate, and make it hard to determine if we should repeat the behavior or not
Sometimes consequences are hard to attribute to a certain behavior or the immediate consequence is not as desirable as the one that will come much later (hello, new pair of shoes instead of saving for retirement!)

No matter what, you need a combo of these things for behavior to occur and to keep occurring.

Let’s say there is an antecedent like hunger, so you stick your hands down into the cracks of the couch and viola! You find some skittles! And somehow, every time you do this, you keep finding more skittles! Assuming you like skittles, you’re probably going to keep sticking your hands into couch crevices when you’re hungry.

BUT - if you weren’t hungry (i.e., there was no antecedent), you probably wouldn’t have done anything in search for food, so the behavior probably wouldn’t occur.
OR - if you put your hands into the couch crevice (assuming you were hungry) and got poked by a pencil, you probably wouldn’t keep looking there for food (not a “good” consequence).
OR- there is plastic covering the couch and you can’t put your hands down the cracks, you probably wouldn’t even attempt it at all.

So if the antecedent and/or consequence is missing or creating a barrier, the behavior isn’t likely to occur (no appropriate antecedent) and wouldn’t occur often (no appropriate consequence).

In other words, if these things are missing, they may prevent behavior from occurring altogether.

Still with me?? I hope so!

So what does any of that have to do with sustainability or education?

Great question! 😉

The environmental sustainability field, including wildlife conservation, has often defaulted to education and awareness-raising to move people to take action (to be fair, this is not the only industry/field guilty of this - many health-related issues also fall into this trap, for example).

How many of these have you heard of before?

Shark Week!
Earth Day!
World Oceans Day!
Climate Pledge!
Tigers are endangered!
Polar bears are starving!
The Amazon Rainforest is the lungs of the Earth!
Wildlife trafficking is bad!

I could go on (and on and on and on), but I think you get it. Many well-meaning and passionate organizations and people make the assumption that if people only knew THEN they would definitely do SOMETHING about it.

And so, the focus has been on making people AWARE of the terrible, awful things happening to animals/biodiversity/the planet itself and then EDUCATING people about the issues and how to stop it.

Sometimes, this is really important and serves as the foundation for change.

Often, this makes people feel things (guilty, sad, shameful, fearful), but provides no actionable options BECAUSE:

There is a BARRIER to the behavior
There is no CUE for the behavior
There is no MOTIVATION for the behavior
The CONSEQUENCE is muddy or not well-linked to the behavior
Or ALL OF THE ABOVE

Now that you have some understanding of human behavior, you know that the things I listed above prevent a behavior from occurring.

And just because you now have a baseline understanding of behavior, I don’t expect that you will be able to effectively implement strategies that combat this list of things! If only it were that simple!

Because ultimately, EDUCATION and AWARENESS are not enough to CHANGE BEHAVIOR.

Both knowledge and awareness certainly help in creating a foundation for the next step. Now that you have the basics of behavior down, you can probably start to think of ways you can apply this to your life.

But if there are barriers to using this information, or no discernable cues as to when to do something, or you’re not motivated to use it, then nothing will probably come of it.

All of this to say, education alone does not typically change behavior.

Which means that, even though you may logically and intellectually understand all of the issues with our environment, it’s not really your fault that you can’t always act sustainably! Especially if all of the information/education you have received doesn’t address the main components of changing behavior.

So, the next time you hear about how your fashion choices are destroying the earth, but you still don’t know what the heck to actually do about it, remember that the awareness around it is only a small portion of the solution. And then drop us a line to ask how we can help you actually do something if we haven’t already addressed it on our Blog.

I want to combat the guilt and shame associated with sustainability, while also providing actual tools to address those missing components of behavior change. Hopefully this helps provide a bit of context as to why it’s so dang difficult to take action for our planet.

If guilt-free, research-based approaches to sustainability sound like your cup of tea, join our mailing list! You’ll get access to exclusive content and of course the most positive, practical info on sustainability you’ll find anywhere on the interwebs 🙂

We also help conservation orgs integrate behavioral science into their programming, so if you’re like, “Nicolette - help me please!” send me an email here or check out what services we offer to make the most out of your programs.

Regardless of where you are on your journey, we want to hear from you! We answer all of your toughest eco questions, so fill out this form if you have a burning question and read more about what the heck I’m talking about here!

Thanks for being here! It is truly my honor and privilege to serve each of you as we tackle the largest challenge of our time ♥️ Remember - YOU can make a difference!

Ta-ta for now,

Nicolette

Sciencey Stuff:

Contingencies of Reinforcement, B.F. Skinner

Stop Raising Awareness Already, Ann Christiano & Annie Neimand

The Dragons of Inaction, Robert Gifford

On the Distinction Between the Motivating Operation and Setting Event Concepts, Melissa R. Nosik and James E. Carr