I was recently elected to become the LFS Student Senator and VP Academic! And it’s really an honour. I feel it’s a great opportunity to combine all the things that I have learned through GRS and development, to some issues that truly speak to me.

I’ve truly seen two resounding themes this year.

1) Development comes from within

“My life belongs to the whole community…Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment; and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations”  – quote spoken at Global Washington Conference

We always say that development should come from within; the needs should be identified within the community. When it comes to development in, say, the university or urban setting – identification usually comes from research. This is a philosophy, I think, I want to embrace when coming into this role.

In looking at some projects I’d like to see, I want gather data to talk about mental health and wellbeing – events and opportunities that would be most effective. Secondly, I want to see what is needed to support our students in their career and student development. Student development is quite important to me – it’s been integral in defining my life here at UBC and previously, when I was at the University of Toronto. Being a part of a community changes you, it has the power to show you things you want to do and things you never want to do again. This is the spirit of student development; it’s finding who you are.

And sometimes, I am at odds internally with how it is performed and executed here on campus. This leads into the second theme for this year:

2) The importance of community and connection in creating social changes

This notion has really been echoed in the second of this year – I feel a culmination of ideas and lessons learned from both work and study. If sustainability of our planet is defined by social behaviour and habits; the root of it all is social.

Ezra Markowitz and Azim Shariff wrote an article on influencing social behaviour called “Climate Change and Moral Judgement.

Why Climate Change Doesn’t Register as a Moral Imperative:

6 primary challenges that prevent climate change from activating human moral alarm system

1)    ABSTRACTNESS AND COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY

The abstract nature of climate change makes it non-intuitive and cognitively effortful to grasp

• Climate change possess few features that generate rapid, emotional visceral reactions
• Understanding it as a moral imperative does not occur automatically, at an intuitive level
• Requires cold, cognitively demanding and less motivating moral reasoning

2)    BLAMELESSNESS OF UNINTENTIONAL ACTION

The human moral judgement system is finely tuned to react to intentional transgressions

• Lacks features of an intentional moral transgression – no wants climate change to occur or is purposefully trying to make it happen
• Perceived by many individuals as an unintentional side effect
• Studies suggest that unintentionally caused harms are judged less harshly than equally severe but intentionally caused ones

3)    GUILTY BIAS

Anthropogenic climate change provokes self-defensive biases

• To allay negative recriminations, individuals often engage in biased cognitive processes to minimize perceptions of their complicity
• People will derogate evidence of their role in causing the problem and challenge the significance of the issue
• Those responsible for the greatest share of harmful effects are the people most motivated to deny their own complicity and resist change

4)    UNCERTAINTY BREEDS WISHFUL THINKING
The lack of a definitive prognoses results in unreasonable optimism

• Uncertainty about future outcomes generally increased self-oriented behaviour and optimistic thinking
• Promotes optimistic biases
• Misinterpretation of messages into the positive

5)    MORAL TRIBALISM

The politicization of climate change fosters ideological polarization

• Attitudes on climate change fall along political lines
• Moral framing of climate change has typically focused on two values
  • Harm to present and future generations
  • Unfairness of the distribution of burdens caused by climate change
• Holds less moral priority for conservatives
• Once attitudes acquire political valence, they are likely to polarize
  • Group identification exerts strong influence on where people stand on political issues
  • Individuals derive self-esteem and sense of belongingness from exhibiting the values of their in-group – motivation to toe the party line

6)    LONG TIME HORIZONS AND FARAWAY PLACES

Out-group victims fall by the wayside

• Consequence of this spatial and temporal distance is that victims of climate change are likely to be seen as relatively less similar to oneself, at works seen as out-group members
• The more dissimilar and socially distant the victims of climate change seem to be, the less morally obligated people will feel to act on their behalf

 

How Can we Bolster Moral Sentiments about Climate Change

6 inter-related strategies that communicators can use to increase recognition of climate change as a moral imperative

1)    USE EXISTING MORAL VALUES

Frame climate change using more broadly held values that appeal to untapped demographics

• Highlighting consequences in which political conservatives are invested
• Pathways by which individual with very different background can come to a shared belief regarding the necessity of action

2)    BURDENS VERSUS BENEFITS

Focus messaging on the costs, not benefits, that we may impose on future generations

• Individuals are significantly more concerned over the ethical implications of saddling future generations with burdens than they are about providing benefits
• Focusing messaging on the burdens that unmitigated climate change will leave on future generations rather than on potential benefits
• Simple and easy way to bolster moral concern of individuals

3)    EMOTIONAL CARROTS, NOT STICKS

Motive action through appeals to hope, pride and gratitude rather than guilt, shame, and anxiety

• Overly dire messages about climate change can backfire with some individuals leading to lower levels of concern and engagement
• Linking action on climate change to positive moral emotions such as gratitude and pride as well as improvements to one’s own wellbeing may help combat the guilty-bias challenge
• Pride has powerful motivational properties

4)    BE WARY OF EXTRINSIC MOTIVATORS

Pushing action on climate change as ‘good business’ may backfire

• Extrinsic motivators such as economic benefit are targeted to motivate individuals or corporations to act in environmentally responsible ways – can sometimes be effective
• Should be cautious about relying solely on extrinsic values to motivate action
• Creates conflict between two values – materialism and environmentalism
• Promoting extrinsic values can actively inhibit individuals from developing intrinsic, non-materialist motives to respond to the problem
• Present focus on extrinsic motivators for individuals and corporations may be short-sighted and can be counterproductive in the long run

5)    EXPAND GROUP IDENTITY

Increase identification with an empathy for future generations and people living in other places

• Explicitly identifying victims as future generations portrays them as individual who can neither help us or harm us for our actions/inactions
• Should adopt techniques that increase individuals affinity and identification with future generation – ‘your children’
• Framing victims of climate change in ways that underscore shared goals and identities should similarly increase their moral standing and motivation to help them

6)    HIGHLIGHT POSITIVE SOCIAL NORMS

Leverage human susceptibility to social influence and approval

• Actions of individuals are powerfully shaped by the observations of others
• Perceptions of the beliefs of other regarding how we ought to act can play an important role in reinforcing good and discouraging bad behaviour
• Find ways to highlight pro-environmental, prosocial norms

 

In leveraging the 6 strategies to to bolster moral sentiments, I feel that these can be answered through community building and building connections. Not that these two ideas are easy  or easily definable – but it is definitely something that has implications from sustainable development and environmental sustainability, and the LFS pedagogies of community-based experiential learning/learning with life. I hope to explore these ideas in a proposed Student Directed Seminar. In turn, I feel that, as in most years, that this GRS year has ended in full circle.

At the centre of it all is community – and the answers are never easy.