Injecting Social Sciences into the Climate Movement from
Wildlife PromiseWhat do the boomerang effect, the deficit model,
and the Shamu principle have to do with helping reduce our
carbon emissions? What about the foot-in-the-door effect,
spillover, and the single-action bias? Turns out that these and
other insights from the social sciences could be instrumental in
our quest to tackle climate change. At the end of May, National
Wildlife Federation hosted a forum on Harnessing Social Science
Expertise to Advance Climate-Conscious Behavior Change. During
the two-day event, we brought together leading thinkers from the
social sciences with leaders of climate advocacy programs from
national NGOs. The group was challenged with identifying
creative and concrete ways to infuse behavior change research
into efforts that NGOs could realistically implement for
reducing carbon pollution. Indeed, changing individual
behaviors—from consumer choices to how we use electrical devices
to how we get around—will be essential fo