Too Many Ways to Go Green? Choice Architecture & Overload, Reuben Kline PhD Ep74

How to Save the World | The Psychology & Science of Environmental Behavior

Does giving people long lists of multitudes of eco actions help people do more green things? Or does it overwhelm, and hence hinder action? And how does the type of action on that list make a difference?

Today’s guest is Dr. Rueben Kline Ph.D. He is the Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Behavioral Political Economy at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York.

In our conversation, we bring evidence-based academic rigor to those big lists of climate and green actions. We’ve all seen them (or we’ve been the ones who created them!). "Top 10 Green Things You Can Do at Home," "101 Ways the Save the Earth From Your Bedroom" etc.

We explore his paper titled “Too Many Ways to Help: How to Promote Climate Mitigation Behaviors” and the theory of “choice architecture" and "choice overload.” Reuben reveals unexpected findings about green behaviors depending on whether they are perceived as "easy" or "hard."

Reuben is also the co-author of a fascinating book coming out soon titled “Climate Games - Experiments on How People Prevent Disaster” which is about game theory and climate.

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How to Save the World is a podcast about the psychology of what gets people to do eco-behaviors and take climate action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to rapidly get more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product.

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