I am a postdoc in the Economics and Psychology Departments here at Stanford. I’m attempting to facilitate a collaboration for the Stanford Institute for the Environment’s (SIE) Environmental Venture Projects this year. This grant funds a project that results in a collaborative effort between faculty from different Stanford departments (w/special attention to the Social Sciences or Humanities) towards the goal of addressing an environmental issue (e.g., climate change).

I have found your papers to be extremely interesting and pertinent: An important part of this project is to understand how we could facilitate environmentally “good” behaviors, and how to get these to propagate through the population.

We are very interested in employing techniques you developed to get people to model behavior (e.g., we were thinking of having attractive well-connected individuals model behaviors in the Sustainable Silicon Valley project (a consortium of businesses and gov’t working towards specific emissions reductions goals); or looking into having soap operas include brief scenes of actors shutting off lights before they leave rooms/driving hybrids, etc.).

I also thought of an interesting brain imaging experiment, perhaps for the future, that would tie into your modeling work and “mirror neurons”/imitation processes (I collaborate w/Brian Knutson).

Self-efficacy

I also think that your theory of moral disengagement might be relevant. I think people often consider engaging in an environmentally “good” behavior, but because it would require effort, they employ disengagement and rationalization so as to not have to engage in the behavior (or don’t have to feel badly if they don’t engage in the behavior). There is some recent interesting work on “interfering” with the rationalization process that might be an interesting tie-in.

Environmental sustainability by sociocognitive deceleration of population growth
Bandura, Albert, Schmuck, Peter (Ed); Schultz, Wesley P. (Ed). (2002). Psychology of sustainable development. (pp. 209-238). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. x, 327 pp.

Addresses environmental sustainability through deceleration of population growth. Serial dramatizations founded on social cognitive theory serve as the principal vehicle for personal and society-wide changes. The author states that these mass media productions inform people, enable them with effective strategies and resilient efficacy beliefs, and guide, motivate, and support them in their efforts to exercise control over their rate of child bearing and otherwise improve their life condition. Global applications in Asia, Africa, and Latin America raise viewers' perceived efficacy to determine their family size, increase approval of family planning, raise the status of women in familial, social and educational life, and increase use of family planning services and adoption of contraceptive methods. In applications in Africa, the media productions also increase condom use and reduce the number of sexual partners to check the spread of HIV infection. The author believes that this generic model of social change can also promote environmental preservation practices.

Social Cognitive Theory for Personal and Social Change by Enabling Media

Monograph Title Entertainment-education and social change: History, research, and practice.

Author Bandura, Albert

Affiliation StanfordUniversity, Stanford, CA, US [Bandura]

Source Singhal, Arvind (Ed); Cody, Michael J. (Ed); Rogers, Everett M. (Ed); Sabido, Miguel (Ed). (2004). Entertainment-education and social change: History, research, and practice. LEA's communication series. (pp. 75-96). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. xxii, 458 pp.

Abstract (From the chapter) Albert Bandura is a leading proponent of social cognitive theory, and his work has directly influenced the development of the entertainment-education strategy. After receiving his doctoral degree from the University of Iowa in 1953, he joined the faculty at StanfordUniversity where he has spent his entire career. His initial research centered on the prominent role of social modeling in human thought, affect, and action. The extraordinary advances in the technology of communications have made modeling a key vehicle in the diffusion of ideas, values, and styles of behavior. Another major focus of Bandura's work concerns the human capacity for self-directedness, which added to our understanding of how people exercise influence over their own motivation and behavior through self-regulative mechanisms. His most recent research is adding new insights on how people's beliefs in their efficacy to exercise control over events that affect their lives contribute importantly to their attainments, resilience in the face of adversity, and psychological well-being. These different lines of research address fundamental issues concerning the nature of human agency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)

ISBN 0805845526 (hardcover); 0805845534 (paperback)

Publisher Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Mahwah, NJ, US

Target Audience Psychology: Professional & Research

Language English

Publication Year 2004

Publication Type Book; Edited Book; Original Chapter

Format Covered Print

Population Human

Identifiers social cognitive theory; Albert Bandura; social change; personal change; media; entertainment-education

Classification 3040 Social Perception & Cognition; 2750 Mass Media Communications

Number of References 25 reference(s) present, 25 reference(s) displayed

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