The psychology of fear in behaviour change
A 2021 report from the UK Climate Change Committee found that 32% of emissions reductions needed by 2035 will depend on shifts in consumer behaviour, from moderating air travel to adopting plant-based diets and choosing longer lasting products (1).
Recently I´ve been exploring the work of Renée Lertzman, renowned Climate Psychologist and Environmental Strategist, who has dedicated her career to understanding behaviours in relation to climate change. I first heard her being interviewed by Manda Scott of Accidental Gods (2), a podcast I love, and instantly wanted to know more, diving into her Inside Out project (3) and the resources she offers to change makers and leaders. The key takeaway for me, was that the fear response does not lead to a change in behaviour.
In delving into her work, my lens I share here is how these insights from the field of Psychology can help Impact-led organisations to connect with their audience and grow.
“If we’re going to do effective environmental work in the world, we have to be a lot more tuned in to the psychological and emotional landscape that we’re in”.
Renée Lertzman,- talking on Earthfire Institute´s podcast (4)
Reporting facts and figures is a logical and well-established path to bringing people into the climate movement - after all, surely if everyone understood the evidence demonstrating the devastation in our collective path, we would take drastic action?
How many of us have watched Cowspiracy (5) and felt overwhelmed with fear and horror at the diabolical state of our dairy systems? And then gone back to our cheese sandwich. Or read the Guardian climate-focus articles (6) day-in day-out reporting with solid data about the degradation of ecosystems and the devastating impact of climate change on human living in climate change frontiers and felt terror? And then booked those summer holidays flights and done some online shopping for new clothes.
Does this fear create behavioural change en masse? Apparently not.
People are more fearful now than ever before about climate change (7). There are three psychological concepts that I´ve learned about through Renée´s work that explain how humans deal with this fear, which can give us insight as communicators:
Window of Tolerance - named by neuroscientist, psychiatrist, author Daniel Siegel (8) - the zone where we’re able to tolerate a certain amount of stress, anxiety and activation - when we’re outside of this zone, with more stress than we can handle we go into either Collapse, at one end of the spectrum, or Hyper-active/anger. A lot of us swing between the two depending on the moment - but the point is we’re outside the Window where we can respond appropriately.
Double Bind - first written about by Gregory Bateson (8) - the experience of feeling like we can’t make the right decision - dammed if we do, dammed if we don’t. Feeling like this in the light of ecological destruction is a very common response. For example you might make a decision about stopping your air travel, but then what’s the point when you’re still eating meat? And what about the impact not travelling has on your family life, your professional life, your spirituality. It’s a feeling of being in a double bind and it leads to despair and denial.
Attunement - this idea comes up regularly in Renée´s work, as being fundamental to how we can positively navigate and respond to the climate crisis. I think it’s subtle but powerful. Attunement means literally to be in tune with what’s going on - broken down here into being attuned to yourself (being able to understand your own reactions, feelings, being compassionate to your own anguish, numbness, fear, and in doing so regulating our own nervous system), being attuned to others to whom we are in relation (for example when someone is showing resentment, cruelty, criticism, understanding that this is a mirror to their own inner anguish), and being attuned to earth (how we fit into the web of life, recognition that nature is not outside of us). Motivational Interviewing is a concept growing in application in the public health sector, a practice based on the evidence-backed insight that when we relate with people from an attitude of empathy and curiosity and interest, then amazing things happen.
What does this mean for a Marketer wanting to connect a green product or service with more people?
I advocate for businesses to identify the Window of Tolerance for their desired audience in relation to the category it’s in, and communicate firmly within that for any mass media messaging. Rigorous consumer research is key to attuning with our potential customers and being able to ´meet them where they are´.
This work reinforces for me the importance of Personalisation, especially when thinking about Engagement. What are the Double Binds on an individual level and how can we respond to those with tailored content and support?
How can we facilitate containers or small face-to-face or technology enabled groups as part of your company´s offering? All the evidence points to this as a key building block for attunement and I believe businesses can play a powerful role in enabling and supporting this human-centric work.
How can businesses can gain insight from using the techniques of Attunement when creating a messaging framework to communicate with their potential audience? This takes us away from tactics of shock, shame, blame - and into territory of empathy, connection and understanding - which Renée´s work shows us is more likely to resonate and therefore have positive results.
All this does not take away the key importance of Salience - a person’s ability to recall a particular product, service or brand in the moment when they need that particular product. The challenge for us is to drive salience alongside Positive brand connotations. Being empathetic doesn’t mean not having a strong point of view, or not making punchy and powerful work. In fact that is the baseline - creating vanilla, generic work simply will fail.
I recently read the work of a dear old colleague Ben Essen, Strategy Director at Iris, who gave his perspective on advertising’s role in the world in his essay Is Advertising Bad for the Planet for the Advertising Association. He argues that it holds an important key to shifting behavioural change.
Advertising has long been on the wrong side of climate change, driving consumerism and over-consumption in tandem with economic growth kickstarted by the Industrial Revolution. But Ben quite rightly points out the that it can also play an immensely climate positive role, because ultimately advertising is a vehicle to communicate at scale - influencing hearts and minds and driving action. If that action is buying less, or instead buying via the circular economy, or buying from a responsible business, then this is positive. Ultimately it’s all in the brief - it’s all in the client - it’s all in the goals of the organisation. After all advertising is always in service of those things. Advertising is neither good or bad unto itself. What’s indisputable is that when it works, it influences behaviour.
If you’d like to have a conversation about how I can support your brand, contact me at annakilmurrayfiore@gmail.com to set up a 30 minute introduction.
1. https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/behaviour-change-for-achieving-climate-and-environment-goals-environment-and-climate-change-committee-report/
2. Episode 287, Paths to personal and global transformation with Renee Lertzman, Accidental Gods podcast hosted by Manda Scott https://accidentalgods.life/working-from-the-inside-out-paths-to-personal-and-global-transformation-with-renee-lertzman/
3. Inside Out project https://projectinsideout.net
4. The Psychology of Climate Action, EarthFire Stories podcast hosted by the EarthFire Institute https://earthfireinstitute.org/psychology-of-climate-action-renee-lertzman/
5. Cowspiracy https://www.cowspiracy.com
6. Guardian Climate Crisis series https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-crisis
7. Daniel Siegal https://drdansiegel.com/resources/
8. Advertising Association essay by Ben Essen https://adassoc.org.uk/credos/is-advertising-bad-for-the-planet/#_ftn5
9. Ispsos Global Trends Report, Navigating a Polycrisis https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2023-Ipsos-Global-Trends-Report.pdf