One of the challenges of behavior change is that it's fundamentally very difficult! Here is one key myth about behavior change:
If I just give them enough information, they will change.
Anyone who has tried to diet, or quit smoking, or quit drinking, knows that it doesn't make any difference how much you know... change is difficult.
One problem with this movie is that I believe the filmmakers are operating under this same misconception, "If we just give people enough information about global warming, things will change." I'm not saying the movie is flawed, but this reasoning is incomplete.
A helpful tool in behavior change is a great book called Changing For Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward by James O. Prochaska, John C. Norcross, and Carlo C. DiClemente.
After studying hundreds of people who had successfully changed their own negative behaviors (quitting smoking, alcohol, or overeating), the authors discovered that successful changers went through six distinct stages when trying to change a negative behavior. They also identified tools that can be used to move through the stages.
An Inconvenient Truth is aimed at people in Stage 1, who don't know they have a problem (global warming) and maybe don't care. But they are also trying to move people from Stage 1 all the way to Stage 4 (Action) during the course of a 90-minute film.
It's a worthy cause, but I think they might have been trying to do too much. What do you think?
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Hi Stephanie, I don't think this has come out in Australia yet, so I can't comment on it directly, but I agree that it's important not to overload people with information. Far better to design an experience in a way that makes people think and feel.
ReplyDeleteI work in a community permaculture garden giving workshops to kids and we try to connect what we're doing in the garden to what they can do in their garden at home. I'm not really sure if we are successfull in changing behaviour, but I like to think that we do!
Lisa, Thanks for posting. I love community gardening. Post some pix about your garden here, I'd love to see them. Starting young with the kids is the best way to go.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI have seen the movie with two different groups of people. The first was quite knowledgeable about the issue and came away feeling "vindicated" in their commitment to the cause. The second group was only slightly informed and came away feeling that without the ending tips (in text that run with the credits) they would have been very depressed and "would have wanted to jump of the bridge" - so yes, I agree that for the average folks, there needs to be enough direction to move from knowing to feeling that you can do something.