First of all, thank you, Jim for your post motivating the "silent ones" to speak up on the blog. I felt so guilty for getting joy from something to which I was not contributing. I assume that was your intention.
What motivates us/others to change? This was discussed shortly at Bethel Park Thanksgiving, and is a massive topic, so i'll focus on one example.
On January 1st, 2010, the District of Columbia instituted a "bag tax." 5cents would be charged for every "Carry Out" bag (paper or plastic). So i'll go through the thoughts of a typical human being faced suddenly with a suggestion to change...
"pf, i don't care about 5 cents...i just threw some nickels away cause my coin jar was overflowing."
"Who do you think you are...taking away a crucial aspect of my shopping experience? How do you expect me to carry my groceries?! This is the way is has always been and always should be."
"So you're saying that everyone will see that I just bought tampons at CVS? Where's my privacy!"
"I'm shopping in Virginia"
"Does this mean I have to carry those big cloth bags with me everywhere?! What a pain!"
"You think 1 bag is going to stop global warming?! Really?"
and the list could go on and on...
The campaign was intended to assist the clean up of the Anacostia River, where 99.9% of the fish (male and female) have the ability to lay eggs. In most stores, all 5cents of the bag tax goes to the Anacostia River Clean Up Project.
After the FIRST month of the bag tax, 3 million bags were distributed in the District of Columbia, compared to 22.2 million the month before. $150,000 was donated to the Anacostia River clean up.
So what made people change? Is it environmental consciousness? Saving money? The negative public perception of going against the change? The type of people in DC - more open to change, younger? Does it make them feel proud to part of something "good" ?? Is it because they feel connected to and responsible for the Anacostia River?
I think this "fake top-down change motivation" has a lot of potential....especially when the "penalty" is a nickel or less.
12 comments:
It sounds like one of Katherine's strategies—something small, but enough that people want to be recognized for doing a positive thing. I think Washington is ahead of most of the country in environmental conscientiousness.
The program must have been implemented well, hopefully it will continue and, perhaps, get some national exposure so other cities take it up.
Change is a strange thing. During the 'first' energy crisis, all homes were dark during the Christmas season. That lasted a couple of years.
It sounds more like Carolyn's strategy is to impose a financial penalty on those who don't participate in the blog.
By the way, I think that maybe Pete's blog entry on How to Cut Carbon Emissions might provide an even better motivation for people to get more involved in the blog. No pressure at all, but it would be great to get a sense of how many of you might want to speak up in the blog....
I disagree with with a show of hands initiative. Read, write, comment, bookmark it, use it to get dates. Do whatever you want and do it on your on time. It should be more like a carnival than a book club.
Incentives are tricky - do you go with a negative incentive (Carolyn's tax idea) or do you go with a subsidy. In western Mass (at least at Stop n Shop) we have a 5 cent discount on your grocery purchase for every reusable bag you use. So there is positive incentive to help the environment. On the flip side, Stop n Shop just put in a gas station next to the grocery store where you get a certain amount off for every let's say $100 you spend at the grocery store. An incentive to buy more gas (or at least their gas). I wonder what the tradeoff is for being able to purchase more gas (and therefore pollute more) and saving a plastic bag from going in the landfill.
All of the above are contributing incentives for change. And don't forget "peer pressure" or, said in a positive way, "each person's desire to be loved." That was my point with the Christmas decorations. People did feel like they were doing good, but it also would have been very tough to string Christmas lights outside when all your neighbors' homes, up and down the street, were dark.
"...use it [the blog] to get dates." Let's get real. There is greater likelihood that the pope will declare homosexuality to be a valid lifestyle than reference to this blog will get you a date.
Myk-
I didn't have a wife before I started blogging, but now I do. Coincidence? I don't think so.
maybe it's my irish catholic blood, but guilt is my strongest motivator. It's definitely the reason why I bring my own bags. (and wrote on the blog) I wish the positive approach in Ted's example could be as effective, but im not sure - unless we awarded people who use recyclable bags with dates. I mean, it was determined by a Harvey at some point that man's goal in life is to woo women. I guess that should be used as the positive motivator for everything.
"...it was determined by a Harvey at some point that man's goal in life is to woo women."
Nay, not by a Harvey, although we were early supporters of this view. The credit for this theory goes to Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary social psychologist, who believes that human culture arose as the result of sexual selection. He argues that cultural traits such as art, music, dance, verbal creativity and humor are of no survival value. He, therefore, concludes that these traits in humans are the result of sexual selection and not natural selection.
Females, convinced that these traits were evidence of a healthy male and, hence, potentially healthy offspring, choose males who possessed them. So, it is not too much to say that all of human culture is the result of men trying to woo women. Miller once described a man as an incredibly complex home entertainment systems. So, guys, if you're not out there entertaining your sweetie -- card by card tricks, stand-up, piano recitals, whatever, you are not doing your job as a man.
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." A Midsummer Night’s Dream
My efforts here, however, go for naught. My wife refuses to read the blog.
Not by a Harvey, and before Geoffrey Miller was John Keating:
John Keating: Language was developed for one endeavor, and that is - Mr. Anderson? Come on, are you a man or an amoeba?
[pause]
John Keating: Mr. Perry?
Neil: To communicate.
John Keating: No! To woo women!
"The chief task in life that a man has to perform is that of impressing the opposite sex, and Mother Nature (as we laughingly call her) is not so kind to men. In fact, she equips many fellows with very little armament for the struggle. An average man has just one, outside chance: he had better be able to make the lady laugh. Making them laugh has been one of the crucial preoccupations of my life. If you can stimulate her to laughter—I am talking about that real, out-loud, head-back, mouth-open-to-expose-the-full-horseshoe-of-lovely-teeth, involuntary, full, and deep-throated mirth; the kind that is accompanied by a shocked surprise and a slight (no, make that a loud) peal of delight—well, then, you have at least caused her to loosen up and to change her expression. I shall not elaborate further.
Women have no corresponding need to appeal to men in this way. They already appeal to men, if you catch my drift." - The Hitch
From a discussion of a bag tax to sexually selected traits, in just a few posts. Leave no stone unturned!
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