Why is It so Hard to Change People's Behaviour?

In this 16-page article, author Richard Docwra analyses the 'Movement for Global Change' (MFGC), and what he characterises as the inability of this movement to motivate the general public to change their attitudes and behaviour on key issues. Docwra defines the ‘Movement for Global Change’ as "the broad body of individuals, NGOs [non-governmental organisations], lobby groups and other organisations, from organic food retailers to the Trade Justice Movement" who are lobbying for consumer lifestyle alternatives that tie ethical principles to individual impact. In the article, he identifies key barriers that may contribute to the inaccessibility of consumers or their seeming unwillingness to change, examines their attitudes and behaviours towards issues they may deem secondary, and directs the MFGC towards being more effective with these individuals.

Docwra chooses his focus on individuals as the source of potential power because:

• "In the medium term - the political will can only be found if a critical mass of public opinion is engaged to influence decision makers.
• In the short term - many of the global environment problems ...could be considerably improved... through changes in the attitude and behaviour of the ordinary individual."

He names two critical factors that appear to affect the individual’s ability and willingness to adopt attitudes and behaviours that would enable them to meet these short and medium term goals:
First, the modern world, according to Dowcra, is so complex that it is very difficult for the majority of people to understand; and, second, the most persuasive influences of society promote and protect the status quo.

Dowcra sorts the barriers to individual change into the categories of understanding and action. Barriers to understanding are: the lack of focus and momentum of the MFGC, which is made up of organisations working, for the most part, on single issues in isolation; the quality of information from MFGC; and a lack of sufficient "thinking tools" - analytical and cognitive skills - among individuals. Barriers to action are the perception that alternatives require altruistically motivated behaviour changes; the inaccessibility of alternatives; the confusion of too many alternatives; the lack of information on what is "enough" change; and the external pressure to conform rather than to change.

Dowcra proposes to educate the individual with an "intellectual tools kit," a set of 10 individual analytical and cognitive skills. Combining these tools with the availability of clear information to develop global awareness, a sense of history, understanding of the function of individual influence, and the alternative options of views and actions, the document suggests that the individual has the capacity to act as an agent for global change, with a variety of accompanying benefits of what the author characterises as "better thinking."

Dowcra enumerates the following solutions for individuals and for the MFGC:

• For individuals who choose to access information on living consistently with ethical values,
  ‘just think,' is an online location for accessing the tools mentioned earlier.
• For the MFGC some strategic considerations for reaching individuals include:
  
  • Contextualise individual issues.
  • Provide an overall vision.
  • Make an investment in educating people.
  • Recognise other barriers and address them by reducing stigma, presenting alternatives to altruism, increasing the accessibility of options, and providing support.

Dowcra concludes that, with these steps, the MFGC may increase the number of people it influences and provide the grounding for a longer-term vision of the human race and its environment.