27 June 2017: Member States and stakeholders discussed behavioral insights and their applications for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on climate change, during a training organized by the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). The workshop aimed to build participants understanding of defaults, social norms and steps necessary for tackling climate change.

Moderator Lori Foster Thompson, North Carolina State University, opened the course, titled Behavioural Insights towards the Implementation of Sustainable Develoment Goal (SDG) 13 (Climate Action), which took place at the UN Headquarters in New York, US, on 27 June 2017. She noted that sustainable consumption and production, which is key to achieving SDG 13, is essentially about human behavior, and thus incentives to promote changes in behavior are needed. Foster Thompson highlighted the value of using behavioral insights for designing evidence-based polices. She added that even though there are pockets focused on behavioral insights that operate in different UN agencies, an overarching structure focused on behavioral insights is yet to be formalized within the system.

Elke U. Weber, Princeton University, challenged the idea of Homo Economicus who makes decisions rationally, by explaining that Homo Sapiens is not primarily a creature of rational deliberation, but rather a creature of habit who learns best from personal experience and uses emotions, associations, rules and habits to guide action. She said humans have always too many goals, often conflicting. Weber added that policy makers and communicators therefore need to find ways to activate those goals that are more forward looking and more environment friendly. She noted that inaction is the current behavioral status-quo, which was formed in a period in which people were not facing climate change issues. Weber stressed that this behavioral status-quo is the current barrier to change.

She cautioned against using fear or guilt-based messaging, explaining that even though this type of messages attract attention, they do not retain peoples attention as they tend to dissociate from unpleasant emotions. She advised that in order to keep peoples attention, messaging should be focused on effective solutions and appeal to the moral sense of people doing the right/good thing. She stressed that policy makers should not allow for behavior preferences to influence policies, but policies need to be evidence-based because people will end up adopting them.

Filippo Cavassini, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), explained that the OECD conducted a world-wide mapping of the use of behavioral insights in public policy. He added that the mapping found that local governments have applied a lot in terms of behavioral insights because they are the interface with the public, and the use of behavioral insights is usually spearheaded by politicians. He gave the example of the UK, which currently has a world-wide known behavioral insights team. Cavassini explained that overall behavioral insights are applied across sectors, especially in the financial sector after the financial crisis because consumers need to be better educated about financial choices.

Cavassini noted that behavioral insights are currently mainly used in the implementation stage, while they could also be used in designing policies that are effective. He announced that the OECD will look at behavioral insights for complex policy issues, such as digital tools and how they can be used, for instance, to promote sustainable energy consumption. He concluded that, even though so far behavioral insights have been applied to individuals, there are opportunities to apply them to institutions.

Irina Feygina, Climate Central, underlined that most people do not care about climate change thus choices need to be framed through needs that are very stringent.

Mary MacLennan, London School of Economics (LSE), spoke about her experience in working with the government of Ontario, Canada. She highlighted that the use of behavioral insights builds skills across government with regards to knowledge and evidence-based policy. She said behavioral insights use in governance needs to be thought in terms of its added value for things such as cost-savings, balancing budgets or innovation. Underlining the importance of having a multidisciplinary approach to behavioral insights that brings together sociology, psychology and anthropology, MacLennan also noted challenges to work across departments and ministries. She recalled significant interest, enthusiasm and buy-in for the use of behavioral insights at the lower and highest levels of governments. She also pointed to problems and resistance with the middle management, stressing that it is much more risk-adverse.

Irina Feygina, Climate Central, underscored the importance of how choices are framed, noting that small changes to the framing of a policy or choice can improve its effectiveness. She explained that decision making is not cost-benefit but driven by needs and desires, and that attitudes and values interfere in the way we process information. She therefore called for putting peoples needs first when messaging (such as health, safety, children, capacity to strive, community safety) rather than speaking about climate change, underlining that most people do not care about climate change thus choices need to be framed through needs that are very stringent.

Feygina said people prefer narratives and stories than facts, because they have a hard time encoding facts. She added that facts are hard to feed the need to belong, which is the most stringent human need after the needs of food, shelter and safety. She stressed the need to give people very simple, attractive and simplified options, and to communicate to them that other people they admire are doing it.

In the ensuing discussion, participants underscored the need to: provide incentives and secure political courage; downgrade the scientific thinking to make it more accessible to the public at large; and look at the structural macro-systems in place, like the capitalist system built on continuous growth. They also discussed ways to design experiments with larger-systems interventions. [IISD Sources] [UNITAR Website]

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UNITAR Workshop Looks at Behavioral Insights for SDG 13 - IISD Reporting Services