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Human Identity:
A Missing Link
in Environmental
Campaigning
by Tom Crompton and
Tim Kasser
Environmentalists often respond to
these concerns by proposing policy interventions that are tailored to current
political constraints and by highlighting the business case for investment
in green technologies. Unfortunately,
these approaches often make for policy
changes that fall far short of the interventions that are required on environmental grounds and for changes in business practice that are limited to those
instances where commercial interests
and environmental imperatives happen
to converge. While we don’t doubt that
such appeals have led to some important
policy achievements and have often created significant leverage with business
constituencies, it seems clear that more
ambitious interventions are needed.
JULY/aUgUSt2010
In recognition of these limitations,
environmental campaigners have also
focused on encouraging citizens’ adoption of simple “private-sphere” behaviors such as installing low-energy light
bulbs, switching the tap off while brushing one’s teeth, or avoiding the use of
disposable plastic grocery bags. For example, the Energy Savings Trust, which
is funded by the UK government to promote action that leads to the reduction
of carbon dioxide emissions, suggests
turning down the thermostat by 1°C,
closing the curtains at dusk, and switching appliances off stand-by.3 The U.S.
Environment Protection Agency urges
citizens to use energy-efficient lights,
switch to green power, and push a manual lawnmower.4
www.EnvironmEntmagazinE.org
iStockPhoto/gwmullis
W
hatever the recent successes of different approaches to tackling global environmental challenges, it is clear that these
efforts have thus far fallen far short of what is necessary.
Surveys suggest that the majority of the public in economically developed nations like the United States and the United Kingdom remains reluctant to embrace significant departures from their current
life-styles or to bear higher economic costs.1 As a result, policymakers
and businesses both claim that their hands are tied with regard to larger
societal changes: Politicians highlight the barriers to ambitious new
policy interventions presented by electoral resistance or apathy, and
businesses point to the possible loss of profit that would come with
adopting certain environmental policies.2
Environmental campaigners have focused
on encouraging citizens’ adoption of
simple “private-sphere” behaviors such as
installing low-energy light bulbs.
It is undoubtedly important that such
behaviors are more widely adopted, and
there is clear value in people undertaking small behavioral changes. But it is
nonetheless understandable that criticism has been leveled at this approach,
particularly where the private-sphere
behavioral changes advocated in some
campaigns appear trivial in comparison to the larger environmental challenges that humans confront. As David
MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor at the
UK Department of Energy and Climate
Change, said: “Don’t be distracted by
the myth that ‘every little bit helps.’ If
everyone does a little, we’ll achieve
only a little.”5
Unfortunately, the empirical literature does not lend clear support to the
EnvironmEnt23
argument that simple pro-environmental behavioral changes “spill over”
into more difficult and significant
changes—particularly in cases where
campaigns appeal to the financial savings associated with domestic energy
efficiency measures, rather than social
and environmental imperatives. To say
the least, it seems risky to base a strategy for building public acceptance of—
or active demand for—ambitious regulatory intervention primarily upon campaigns that encourage people to adopt
small changes to their private-sphere
behaviors.6
Thus, while we recognize that there
have been many successes, it nonetheless seems to us that there are important limitations to the two dominant
approaches to environmental campaigning. On the one hand, attempts
to implement proportional responses
to environmental challenges through
policy intervention seem fundamentally constrained by electoral resistance
and by the many instances in which
environmental imperatives do not converge with the interests of business. On
the other hand, widespread adoption
of simple private-sphere behavioral
changes seems unlikely to lead to significant lifestyle changes or to inspire
people to begin demanding more ambitious political interventions.
man “in-group” and other-than-human
nature as an “out-group”; and (iii) the
problematic ways in which people cope
with fears and threats brought on by environmental challenges.
Viewing environmental challenges
through the lens of identity shifts the focus beyond a set of policy interventions
targeted at specific “environmental”
problems, beyond “the business case for
sustainability,” and beyond approaches
that attempt to change particular behaviors on a piecemeal basis. Instead, an
identity-based approach suggests that
those who are motivated to help build
public concern about environmental
New Campaigning Approaches
24 Environment
iStockPhoto/Take A Pix Media
Another Approach:
Engaging Identity
Because of these limitations with
the two dominant approaches, we advocate their augmentation with a third approach that we believe holds substantial
promise for environmental campaigning. This approach draws upon a large
body of empirical studies on people’s
identities, or their sense of who they are
as a person. The box on page 25 briefly
describes three of the aspects of a person’s identity that the social scientific
research literature suggests may serve
to frustrate the emergence of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. They
are (i) people’s self-enhancing, materialistic values and life goals; (ii) people’s
tendency to distinguish between the hu-
issues and stronger public engagement
with corresponding political processes
must also consider the social forces that
encourage or discourage a broader array of aspects of human identity that are
relevant to environmental outcomes. In
particular, this shift in perspective implies the need to give careful thought to
three practical aspects of environmental
communications and campaigns: (i) the
kinds of campaigns that environmentalists undertake, (ii) the way in which
these campaigns are conducted, and
(iii) the groups with whom environmentalists collaborate in working on these
campaigns.
Self-enhancing, materialistic goals known
to be associated with greater environmental
damage are opposed by “selftranscendent”
and “intrinsic” values.
www.environmentmagazine.org
Any attempt to work at the level of
people’s identities must start with an
understanding of how identity is forged.
Most identity theorists recognize that
people’s sense of self is shaped crucially through social influences: our
perception of what is socially “normal,”
the language and concepts used in public discussions, and the ways in which
we organize ourselves socially (through
our institutions and policies). Social
norms and social organizations provide
the context in which individuals’ identities develop—a context sometimes all
the more important because it usually
remains “unseen” and is therefore taken
for granted.
This analysis suggests two important
strategies for addressing the environmentally problematic aspects of human
identity that are summarized on page 25.
The first is to work to disable the means
through which society currently serves
to encourage these aspects of identity.
The second is to work to activate and
encourage other aspects of identity that
stand in opposition to the environmentally problematic aspects and that promote positive environmental attitudes
and behaviors in and of themselves.
Page 26 reviews three environmentally
beneficial aspects of identity that the research shows are associated with more
sustainable environmental attitudes and
behaviors, and that are also known to
counteract the problematic aspects of
identity reviewed on page 25.
VOLUME 52 NUMBER 4
Three Environmentally Damaging
Aspects of Human Identity
Psychological research shows that the following three aspects of human identity are negatively associated with people’s concern about environmental issues and with their motivation to adopt pro-environmental behaviors (including political activism in line with environmental concerns). Of course, other aspects of identity are important to consider as well,
but these three factors provide a good starting point for exploring the importance of human
identity in responding to environmental problems.
1. Values and
Life Goals
2. In-Groups and
Out-Groups
3. C
oping with
Fear and Threats
Values and life goals are the
aspects of people’s identities that
reflect what they deem to be worth
striving for in life. An extensive body
of cross-cultural research on values
and life goals has identified around
a dozen sets of aims in life that consistently emerge across nations.30
Among those values and goals are
self-enhancing, materialistic aims
for wealth, possessions, achievement, and status. Using a range of
different investigative approaches,
psychologists have found that the
more individuals endorse these selfenhancing, materialistic values, the
more they also express negative attitudes and behaviors towards otherthan-human nature (e.g., caring less
about environmental damage or the
value of other species; engaging in
fewer behaviors like recycling and
using public transport; and using
more resources to support their lifestyles). This basic finding has been
corroborated through studies on
self-reported attitudes and behaviors, with game simulations of natural resource management dilemmas, and using nation-level archival
data.31
People’s social identity is defined in part by the groups to which
people feel that they belong—other
people who share their race, sex, or
nationality, or who are members of
their family, choir, or football team.
Considering oneself to be part of
one group (the in-group) creates,
by default, an out-group. Hundreds
of studies show that people typically
treat out-group members in more
denigrating ways, which helps to
explain the widespread phenomena
of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Some studies have extended the concept of social identity
to environmental identity, finding that
humans—at least those in the industrialized societies where the studies have been conducted—have
a tendency to define their species
as an in-group that excludes otherthan-human nature. Categorizing
other-than-human nature as an outgroup seems to lead to a heightened indifference to the suffering
of both individual other-than-human
animals and the destruction of the
other-than-human natural world. Human attitudes towards other animals
(e.g., animals they eat) frequently
offer clear examples of how otherthan-human nature is seen and
treated as part of the out-group.32
There seems little doubt that
awareness of the scale of environmental problems that humans confront can lead people to experience
a sense of threat. Anxiety, guilt (a
kind of moral anxiety), and threats
to identity and self-esteem can also
result when people recognize their
own complicity in exacerbating environmental problems. People use an
extensive array of “emotional management strategies” to help them remove from their awareness thoughts
and feelings about anxiety- or guiltproducing situations. While these
strategies are often effective in helping lower levels of stress associated
with an awareness of the threats
posed by environmental problems,
many of them also encourage responses that serve to exacerbate
these very problems. For example,
in their attempts to cope with the
threat and anxiety they experience
about environmental problems, the
literature shows that people sometimes become apathetic about those
problems (refusing to care, and
therefore removing any possible
source of guilt), try to seek pleasurable diversions (living for today, and
putting thoughts of tomorrow out of
mind), or deny their own complicity in exacerbating a problem and
project their guilt onto others (perhaps SUV drivers, the government,
or another nation).33
JULY/AUGUST 2010
www.environmentmagazine.org
environment 25
Three Environmentally Helpful
Aspects of Human Identity
This box discusses three aspects of people’s identity that stand in opposition to those
features of identity (reviewed on page 25) which are associated with worse environmental
attitudes and behaviors. Each of the three aspects of identity highlighted here has also
been empirically associated with more positive ecological attitudes and behaviors.
1. Values and
Life Goals
2. In-Groups and
Out-Groups
3. C
oping with
Fear and Threats
Cross-cultural research shows
that while certain values and goals
tend to be psychologically compatible (e.g., money and status), others
tend to be in psychological conflict
and difficult to simultaneously pursue. In particular, the self-enhancing, materialistic goals known to be
associated with greater environmental damage are opposed by “selftranscendent” and “intrinsic” values,
which include prioritizing one’s family and friends as well as showing
a greater concern for the broader
community and world. What’s more,
research shows that the more people prioritize self-transcendent and
intrinsic values, the more concern
they express about environmental
issues, and the more highly motivated they are to adopt behavior
consistent with such concerns. 34
The tendency to categorize
other-than-human nature as part of
an “out-group,” thus encouraging
indifference to the suffering of animals and the loss of their habitats,
can be countered in a number of
ways. One obvious approach is to
promote a stronger environmental
identity, i.e., to help people develop
a feeling of connectedness to the
other-than-human natural world. Research on prejudice towards human
out-groups also shows the benefits
of activating egalitarian values and
feelings of empathy. When people
are reminded of the priority they put
on treating other humans equally, research shows they tend to treat outgroup members more positively. In
the context of human relationships
with the other-than-human natural
world, this probably points to the importance of according inherent value
to other-than-human nature (that is,
value that extends beyond the usefulness of nature to humans). Furthermore, studies show that when
people are asked to consider the
perspective of out-group members
(including other-than-human animals), this experience of empathy
leads them to become more likely
to incorporate them into the in-group
and less likely to engage in behaviors that might be damaging to
them.35
As described on page 25, awareness of environmental threats can
sometimes lead people to use emotional management strategies that
ultimately contribute to perpetuating
environmental problems. Research
on coping suggests that healthier,
more adaptive ways to manage feelings of fear or threat do exist, and
that these also can promote more
positive environmental outcomes.
For example, rather than becoming apathetic, pursuing hedonistic
pleasures, or projecting one’s guilt
onto others, the literature demonstrates the effectiveness of “problem-solving” strategies that entail
active engagement in behaviors that
help to reduce environmental challenges.36 Of course, such problemsolving initiatives must be perceived
as offering a realistic response to the
environmental challenge; for example, meaningful participation in political decision-making processes is
more likely to meet this criterion than
is the installation of energy-efficient
light-bulbs. It is also clear that social
networks play an important role in
supporting individuals in such problem-solving initiatives by helping
both to motivate and sustain such
behaviors.37 Another healthy set of
emotional management strategies is
based on “emotion-focused coping.”
For example, research shows that
the practice of “mindfulness,” or a
nonjudgmental awareness of one’s
experience, both improves mental
health and is associated with more
positive environmental behaviors.38
26 Environment
www.environmentmagazine.org
VOLUME 52 NUMBER 4
JULY/AUGUST 2010
iStockPhoto/Benoit David
This two-tiered strategy points to
opportunities for a wide range of new
types of campaigns to help motivate
public engagement on environmental
challenges. Space limitations in this
article do not allow us to elaborate on
all of the possibilities.7 Here we will describe just one strategy relevant to each
of the three aspects of identity reviewed
on pages 25 and 26.
With regard to values, numerous
studies find that greater exposure to
commercial marketing is associated
with a stronger priority placed on materialistic values.8 It is of course difficult
to establish the nature of the causal links
underlying such correlations, but some
evidence does suggest that increased
exposure to commercial advertising
leads to greater prevalence of materialistic values (irrespective of whether or
not the reverse is also true).9 This is perhaps to be expected—many advertisements convey the expectation that the
acquisition of a particular product will
confer greater social acceptance or happiness. Further, the prevalence of advertising on television, radio, magazines,
the Internet, and almost every other
conceivable outlet has increased dramatically in the last 40 years, helping to
establish social norms promoting consumerist and materialist values (which,
incidentally, have also increased over
the last 40 years).10 Given the negative
associations of materialistic values with
environmental attitudes and behaviors,
it seems important for environmental
communicators and campaigners to
examine the environmental impacts of
commercial advertising. Such impacts
include both the immediate material effects that advertising has by increasing
consumption of the products that are
being marketed, and, perhaps more importantly, the influence that advertising
has in promoting societal values that are
antagonistic to the emergence of proenvironmental concern. Environmental
organizations can approach campaigns
around advertisements in a variety of
ways. For instance, they might join with
media literacy groups to teach individuals how to decode and deconstruct advertisements so that their messages are
An identity approach suggests that experiencing nature should become a core element of
children’s education.
less likely to further embed materialistic
values. At a broader level, environmental organizations can support efforts
to ban advertising to children and to
revoke the tax subsidy that corporations and media organizations receive
through current policies that consider
money spent on advertising to be taxdeductible. Such efforts would help to
constrain the further expansion of advertising into contemporary culture, and
could help to diminish the prevalence of
environmentally destructive, materialistic values.
Regarding in-groups and out-groups,
research finds that expression of empathy and egalitarian values are both consistently associated with lower levels
of prejudice toward a variety of human
“out-group” members.11 These results
suggest the importance of developing
approaches to campaigning that deepen
empathy with other-than-human nature.
And while it would be ethically and
practically problematic to seek equality
between humans and other animals, the
important role that egalitarian values
are known to play in reducing prejudice
between humans points to the importance of acknowledging that other-thanhuman nature has an inherent value
that extends beyond its usefulness to
humans.
www.environmentmagazine.org
Perspective-taking has been found to
be important in reducing prejudice, and
there is evidence that it can also help to
motivate environmental concern. For
example, experimental subjects who are
shown pictures of animals in distress
and encouraged “to take the perspective of the subjects” subsequently report
a higher level of concern for all living
things than do individuals asked to “take
a neutral perspective” and be “as objective as possible about the subjects.”12
Despite such evidence, much environmental education, through its insistence
on the quantification and objectification
of nature, continues to require students
to take a “neutral perspective” and to
be as “objective as possible.” Such
approaches are likely to harden the ingroup/out-group distinctions known
to promote problematic environmental
outcomes. An identity approach suggests instead that experiencing nature
should become a core element of children’s education, such that adolescents
leave formal education equipped with
a conceptual framework that enables
them to relate to their own subjective
experiences of nature, a vocabulary with
which they feel comfortable in discussing their relationship with nature, and
educational experiences that lead them
to identify nature as something in which
environment 27
they are immersed even in an urban environment (for example, through the air
they breathe, the water they drink, and
the people they encounter). Such educational approaches will require careful
planning as well as attention to the decades of social psychological research
that suggests that merely bringing people in contact with out-group members
(in this case, other-than-human nature)
is usually insufficient to reduce prejudice.13 Ultimately, it will be necessary to
understand the research literature on the
optimal conditions under which people
reclassify in-groups and out-groups into
a “we” identity, and to carefully apply
such understanding to tackling prejudice towards other-than-human nature.14
We turn now to our third example of
an environmentally damaging aspect of
human identity: the deployment of unhelpful emotional management strategies. We will discuss here two classes
of such strategies: those that seek to
deny the threat, and those that, while
accepting the threat, nonetheless lead to
behaviors and attitudes that continue to
promote ecological degradation.
Despite the overwhelming weight of
empirical evidence, many individuals
continue to dispute the case for anthropogenic global warming. A recent survey in the United States found that only
47 percent of Americans think that global warming is caused mainly by human
activity,15 and another survey in the UK
found that of those who believe climate
change is happening, only 34 percent
accepted that “[i]t is now an established
fact that climate change is largely manmade.”16 Our identity-based approach
suggests that the impassioned nature of
much climate change “denial” showcases another type of emotional management strategy designed to protect
people’s identities. That is, the research
literature on the defense mechanism
of denial demonstrates that when people are provided with information that
threatens their identities, they have a
tendency to dismiss that information,
to conclude that the individual providing that information is biased in some
way, and to question the veracity of the
means by which that information has
28 Environment
been obtained.17 These are the very responses that many climatologists are
used to hearing from those who dispute
the accumulating scientific information
regarding climate disruption. While it is
crucially important to give full consideration to evidence-based critiques of
climate science, it is equally important
that ways are found to respond to attacks on the legitimacy of the climatology where these are unwarranted. Our
identity-based perspective suggests,
then, that it is necessary to understand
which aspects of a person’s identity
are threatened by climate science. For
(as might be attempted in the case of a
conflict between climate science and a
person’s religious beliefs).
Our approach suggests the need to
deploy a different set of strategies for
individuals who, at least at some level,
accept the scale of the environmental
problems that humans confront, but
who nonetheless sometimes use (consciously or otherwise) emotional management strategies that have the effect
of exacerbating these problems. In such
cases, we believe that environmentalists
can learn much from the decades of clinical and psychotherapeutic practice that
While it is crucially important to give full
consideration to evidence-based critiques of climate
science, it is equally important that ways are found
to respond to attacks on the legitimacy of the
climatology where these are unwarranted
example, a person’s awareness of his
or her own contribution to greenhouse
gas emissions may conflict with the importance he or she places upon the acquisition of material things, or with his
or her desire to believe that he or she is
basically a “good person” who wouldn’t
willingly choose to engage in behavior
that is socially and environmentally
damaging. An acceptance of anthropogenic climate change could also conflict
with a person’s religious convictions.
Once environmental campaigns understand which aspects of identity lead to
difficulties in accepting the scientific
evidence for anthropocentric climate
change, they can then develop appropriate response strategies. Such strategies may be designed, for example, to
diminish unhelpful aspects of identity
(as might be attempted to respond to
the problems arising from consumerist
or materialistic values); to help people
realize that there are more adaptive and
helpful ways to enact their identity than
to seek to undermine climate science (as
might be attempted in the case of unwarranted skepticism arising as a result of a
desire to be a “good person”); or to help
people achieve a reconciliation between
the scientific evidence and their beliefs
www.environmentmagazine.org
shows the importance of empathizing
with people about the feelings of fear
or threat that drive such responses. So it
becomes important to consider ways to
help people to express the fear, anger, or
sadness that they are probably already
experiencing (whether consciously or
not) about climate change. Indeed, research shows that individuals who report unpleasant emotions such as anger
and sadness in response to environmental stresses are more likely to engage
in positive environmental behaviors.18
We do not advocate the provocation
of such unpleasant emotions through
confrontational campaigns or communications; rather, we want to highlight
the need to build an empathic rapport
with key constituencies so that people
feel supported in expressing their unpleasant emotions. Group work and the
emerging discipline of eco-psychology
include a range of tools to help in this
regard. For example, Joanna Macy’s
“The Work that Reconnects” offers a
well-developed approach to helping
people work through their despair about
environmental problems in ways that
often leave participants feeling more
motivated and empowered to help address these problems. Similarly, the
VOLUME 52 NUMBER 4
Re-Examining Current
Environmental Communication
Strategies
Our observations suggest that some
of today’s environmental communications and campaigns (whether developed by government, business, or
nongovernmental organizations) retreat
from confronting unhelpful aspects of
identity. Instead, they sometimes attempt to “work with” them. An identitybased approach to campaigning suggests that such attempts may backfire
because they are likely to activate and
reinforce those very aspects of identity
known to be associated with environmental problems. This can be true both
of campaigns focused on motivating
lifestyle changes among individuals and
of initiatives that attempt to engage at a
governmental level.
Campaigns seeking to promote
changes in individuals’ lifestyles often
appeal to financial incentives (reducing the fuel costs of running a vehicle
by regularly checking its tire pressure,
for example) or the social status con-
JULY/AUGUST 2010
ferred by the acquisition of a particular
product (the desirability of owning the
latest hybrid car, for example). Such
campaigns may well represent sensible
approaches to motivating specific behavioral changes. As we noted above,
however, it is far from clear that such
behaviors will “spill over” into public
demand for government intervention to
enforce more difficult changes—for example, increased taxation of air-travel
or public demand for new wind-farms.20
What’s more, campaigns that focus on
financial self-interest or social status
as reasons for engaging in pro-environmental behavior are likely to subtly
privilege self-enhancing, materialistic
values, suggesting to citizens that such
values properly represent a primary motivation for behaving in more sustainable ways. In fact, as discussed on page
25, such values are likely, overall, to
promote worse environmental attitudes
and behaviors. Finally, attempts to motivate environmentally positive behaviors
through appeal to financial self-interest,
or the social status conferred through
acquisition of a particular product, are
likely to diminish motivation to engage
in other pro-environmental behaviors
that do not also confer these secondary
benefits.
Campaigns that appeal primarily to
financial interest or social status often
arise from audience “segmentation”
models, which draw on the techniques
of the marketing industry. Such models
are frequently applied by environmental communicators and campaigners to
categorize sectors of the public according to their predominant concerns or
values.21 Accordingly, it is often argued
that more materialistic people must be
engaged through materialistic values—
deflecting their urge to acquire material
possessions into a drive to “buy green,”
for example. But if, as the research literature suggests, materialistic values
are ultimately antagonistic to the emergence and expression of environmental
concern, then alternative approaches
should be considered.
The approach that we advocate here
is to identify—and redress—some of
those factors that drive the cultural
dominance of materialistic values. This
means that the environment movement,
instead of attempting to co-opt such values, must rather strive for consistency in
reflecting intrinsic and self-transcendent values (see page 26). Doing so will
help to counter society’s dominant
materialistic values and to promote instead values associated with positive
environmental attitudes and behaviors.
What’s more, while it is often asserted
that it is only through appeal to selfinterest and financial incentive that
people are likely to change their behavior, research actually suggests that
iStockPhoto/Digital Planet Design
Transition Movement institutes local
“heart and soul groups” to help in this
process, and the Altars to Extinction
project provides a physical space for individuals to reflect on, and grieve for,
species that have gone extinct.19
This section has highlighted the necessity for environmental campaigns
and communications to incorporate an
understanding of the way in which key
aspects of people’s identity are shaped
and operate. Such understanding can
help environmental campaigners both
to diminish the frequency with which
environmentally problematic aspects
of identity are encouraged and to bring
to the forefront more environmentally
helpful aspects of identity. Unfortunately, some environmental communications and campaigns may currently
serve to accentuate unhelpful aspects
of identity—and so may contribute to
frustrating the emergence of systemic
responses to environmental challenges.
It is to this problem that we turn in the
next section.
By vilifying SUV drivers, non-SUV drivers may avoid the guilt they could otherwise feel by
projecting this guilt onto SUV drivers.
www.environmentmagazine.org
environment 29
iStockPhoto/Piedmont Photo
There is clear value in people undertaking small behavioral changes. But it is nonetheless understandable that criticism has been leveled
at this approach, particularly where the private-sphere behavioral changes advocated in some campaigns appear trivial in comparison to
the larger environmental changes that humans confront.
messages framed as connecting with
intrinsic values are often more effective
in motivating deeper and longer-term
behavioral changes.22
Some campaigns risk promoting
other unhelpful aspects of identity, such
as environmentally problematic emotional management strategies. Consider,
for example, a UK direct action campaign against urban 4×4s (also called
SUVs). This campaign aims “to make
driving a big 4×4 in town as socially
unacceptable as [drunk-driving].” The
campaign provides reasons not to drive
an urban SUV:
Our descendants will be left
to deal with the effects of climate
change caused by our profligate use
of fossil fuels. Drivers of 4×4s should
start editing their photo albums now
… The aggressive look of a big 4×4
means other people on the road may
make assumptions about the person
behind the wheel. In an ordinary car,
you won’t get dirty looks from all and
sundry when you drive around town,
won’t have to avoid eye contact with
bus passengers, and cyclists won’t
mouth obscenities as they squeeze
past you in a queue of traffic.23
30 Environment
The campaign also encourages direct
action against owners of SUVs, such as
issuing spoof parking tickets that “contain lots of information for urban 4×4
drivers about the effects of their choice
of vehicle on the rest of us”.24
We are without doubt supportive of
reducing how many people drive SUVs,
and we recognize the success of this
campaign in terms of the media coverage and public debate that it generated.
It may also have contributed to building the support of non-SUV drivers for
punitive government measures against
SUV owners (increases in road tax, for
example). But from the perspective of
an understanding of identity, we are
driven to ask whether it may also have
had some unforeseen negative effects.
First, it seems possible that the campaign will harden the resolve of some
SUV drivers to continue to use their vehicles: recall from above that when people are presented with information that
conflicts with their identity, they often
deny the veracity of that information. As
such, it seems likely that SUV drivers
whose identities were threatened by this
www.environmentmagazine.org
campaign may have deployed coping
strategies other than changing the kind
of car they drive. Second, and perhaps
more importantly, it seems possible that
this campaign could actually discourage
non-SUV drivers (of whom there are far
more) from taking steps to minimize
their own contribution to traffic-related
pollution (perhaps by driving less or by
parting with their car completely). By
vilifying SUV drivers, non-SUV drivers
may avoid the guilt that they could otherwise feel by projecting this guilt onto
SUV drivers.
Of course, it is far from clear that
the possible negative secondary effects
of a campaign such as this will necessarily outweigh the environmental benefits. That is not why we raise these
possibilities. Rather, we believe that
the foregoing discussion points to the
need for organizers of environmental
campaigns to give due consideration
of possible secondary effects and to
explore ways in which these might be
minimized. For example, the organizers
of this campaign could have chosen to
focus not only on the environmentally
VOLUME 52 NUMBER 4
problematic behaviors of SUV drivers,
but also on the behaviors of the activists who participated in the campaign,
visibly working to ensure that they used
their involvement in the campaign to
help drive further positive changes in
their own behaviors.
The possibility of inadvertently activating unhelpful aspects of identity
is not unique to campaigns focused
on promoting behavior change among
individuals—it also arises in some
governmental attempts to increase the
political priority that is accorded to environmental challenges. For example,
the German Federal Ministry for the
Environment and the European Commission, under the leadership of Pavan
Sukhdev, a senior banker at Deutsche
Bank, recently initiated a study entitled
“The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity.” This study, the final phase of
which is due to report this year, aims to
“evaluate the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the associated decline in
ecosystem services worldwide, and to
compare them with the costs of effective conservation and sustainable use.”25
While we are of course convinced that
those individuals involved in preparing
the report are committed to supporting
conservation, their emphasis risks collateral damage in further eroding public acceptance of the inherent value of
the natural world. We recognize that
many campaigns focus on the economic
rationale for more careful use of natural resources, and that such campaigns
may well generate political engagement
where a compelling economic case for
conservation can be built. We also recognize the critical importance of establishing mechanisms for industrialized
nations to repay developing nations for
the natural resources that have contributed to the developed nations’ wealth;
indeed, this is an imperative that often
increases enthusiasm for economic
evaluations of biodiversity. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that attempts to place an economic value on
biodiversity also risk deepening the priority accorded to financial imperatives,
diminishing humans’ sense that they are
a part of nature, and increasing the perception that other-than-human nature
JULY/AUGUST 2010
exists primarily as a resource to be used
for financial gain. Douglas McCauley
has stated this case unequivocally:
[Conservationists] may believe that
the best way to meaningfully engage policy-makers … is to translate
the intrinsic worth of nature into the
language of economics. But this is
patently untrue—akin to saying that
civil rights advocates would have
been more effective if they provided
economic justifications for racial
integration.26
It seems that some advocates of
the economic evaluation of ecosystem
services share the ultimate objective
of building public appreciation of the
inherent value of nature, but see a role
for economic arguments in the development of such sensibilities. For example,
Gretchen Daily, a prominent advocate
of an ecosystem-services approach
to biodiversity conservation, recently
argued that “ecosystem services is a
strategy to buy time as well as getting
buy-in.”27 This has led one commentator to argue that advocates of an ecosystem services approach “… believe
that nature is intrinsically valuable, and
they hope to preserve nature by appealing to this belief in others or, where it is
absent, by creating it. The difference is
that … [they work] to convince others
by showing them the profitable side of
nature first.”28
Our concern is that showing the
“profitable side of nature first” may actually serve to undermine the emergence
of an appreciation of nature’s inherent
value because, as discussed on page 25
(“Values and life goals”), the pursuit of
extrinsic goals (such as financial interest) act antagonistically to the pursuit
of intrinsic goals (such as developing
an appreciation of the inherent value of
nature).
In this section we have argued that
environmental communicators and
campaigners should identify and deepen
their understanding of the ways in
which some campaigns might inadvertently be promoting unhelpful aspects of
identity. We recognize that there may
well be cases in which appeals to unhelpful aspects of identity are of benefit, even in the long-term, despite the
www.environmentmagazine.org
potential costs of such campaigns. But it
also seems very likely that there will be
other instances where, although perhaps
successful in terms of their specific objectives, campaigns that appeal to environmentally-damaging aspects of identity ultimately serve to reinforce those
problematic aspects of identity in the
longer term. At present, we do not find
many environmental communicators
and campaigners who are giving careful
consideration to such possibilities.
Building New Coalitions
There is a very high level of coincidence between, on the one hand, the
values and aspects of identity that currently frustrate systemic responses to
environmental challenges, and, on the
other, those values and identities that
frustrate a range of other challenges
such as war, aggression, poverty, racism, homophobia, sexism, prejudice
against the disabled, the abuse of human
rights, and indifference to animal welfare. For example, the data clearly show
that self-enhancing, materialistic values
are not only associated with worse environmental attitudes and behaviors, but
also with less concern for social justice,
equality, and a world at peace, and with
less pro-social behavior. Similar data
exist for the other aspects of identity
discussed on page 25.29
Our identity-based approach therefore suggests that it is a mistake to
segregate “environmental” issues and
hope to address these in isolation from
a range of other challenges. Dominant
social values, ideas of group membership, and the emotional management
strategies people use to deal with fear
and threat are clearly relevant to a broad
range of problems, extending far beyond
those usually considered “environmental.” Moreover, it is crucial to recognize
that those aspects of identity that must
underpin systemic public concern about
environmental issues can be reinforced
through campaigns and communications focused on a range of other issues.
Clearly, then, the opportunity exists
for the emergence of new and powerful coalitions working across groups
environment 31
concerned with a range of social and
environmental issues. At present, organizations frequently do work collaboratively when they share concerns about
a specific policy outcome (the impacts
of an international trade agreement or
climate treaty, for example). But potentially far wider opportunities for collaboration emerge when focus is shifted
onto addressing aspects of identity that
frustrate delivery on a range of agendas.
For instance, WWF-UK is collaborating with organizations from other sectors (including the development sector)
to work on the problems presented by
commercial marketing campaigns that
serve to promote the pursuit of material
success. Such an approach seems promising because the promulgation of selfenhancing, materialistic values, inherent to much of commercial advertising,
is associated with diminished concern
about both environment and development concerns. Our identity-based perspective suggests that this type of collaboration could potentially extend far
more widely and include organizations
that represent a range of other sectors.
Promoting a New
Way Forward
The gap between our scientific understanding of the scale of global environmental challenges and the social and
political responses that are actually embraced in response to this understanding
seems to grow ever wider. In this essay
we have presented evidence that some
current approaches to addressing this
gap may actually do little to help close
it, and that some approaches may in fact
serve to widen it further by strengthening aspects of identity that are antagonistic to pro-environmental concerns
and behaviors.
Given these problems, environmental organizations will be better equipped
to close this gap if they incorporate into
their communications and campaigns
an understanding of the way in which
people’s identities are shaped—in particular, the values and goals that domi-
32 Environment
nate in society, the way people treat
out-groups, and people’s responses to
sources of fear and threat.
We are not suggesting that engagement at this “deeper” level should supplant more tactical campaigns focused
on achieving specific policy outcomes
or campaigns to motivate people to
adopt particular pro-environmental behaviors. Clearly, such campaigns are
important and necessary. But it seems
to us that the profound environmental
challenges that confront humanity will
only be successfully met if more environmentally-helpful aspects of identity
are encouraged and promoted in society. Moreover, those who create tactical
campaigns focused on delivering specific policy outcomes or shifts in consumer behavior must begin to examine
the effects that they have in reinforcing
particular aspects of identity. Changes
to campaign and communication strategies may help to avoid inadvertent promotion of environmentally-unhelpful
aspects of identity, and careful thought
must be given to these—even if such
changes may at times serve to compromise the effectiveness of a campaign
in delivering its short-term, specific
objectives.
Campaigning in this way will also
engage aspects of policy and business
practice that have an impact on people’s
identity, and that go far beyond a usual
understanding of “environmental” concerns. Environmental organizations will
benefit from building new coalitions
with other organizations that, although
perhaps focused on a very different set
of issues, nonetheless share common
interests in engaging with the ways in
which certain aspects of identity currently come to predominate. Ultimately,
there may need to be an inversion of
the raison d’être of many environmental groups. That is, rather than asking:
“How can we marshal the widest range
of interest groups to support the environmental cause?”, they might come
to ask, “How can we best build on our
natural support base, and our natural
areas of political influence, to support campaigns that promote socially
www.environmentmagazine.org
and environmentally helpful aspects of
identity, and to change institutions and
policies that promote problematic aspects of identity?” And in embracing
this new agenda, they may also need to
ask: “How, in the course of launching
new campaigns designed to engage aspects of identity, can we achieve greater
influence through coalition with a wide
range of organizations in other sectors?”
Tom Crompton is WWF-UK’s Change Strategist, and
author of Weathercocks and Signposts: The Environment Movement at a Crossroads (WWF-UK, 2008). Tim
Kasser is Professor of Psychology at Knox College, Illinois, and author of The High Price of Materialism (MIT,
2002). This article draws on the authors’ recent collaboration on a book, Meeting Environmental Challenges:
The Role of Human Identity (WWF-UK, 2009), which
can be downloaded for free at http://www.wwf.org.uk/
change. Both authors also contribute to a discussion forum at http://www.identitycampaigning.org, where interested readers can join debate on the issues raised in this
article.
NOTES
1. For example, a recent UK public opinion survey
found that only 13 percent of respondents thought that it
was reasonable to expect people to “make significant and
radical changes to their lifestyle in terms of the products
they buy, how much they pay for things and how much
they drive and fly” in order to tackle climate change.
See IPSOS-MORI, Public Attitudes to Climate Change,
2008: Concerned but Still Unconvinced (London, UK:
IPSOS-MORI, 2008), http://www.ipsos-mori.com/
Assets/Docs/Publications/sri-environment-publicattitudes-to-climate-change-2008-concerned-but-stillunconvinced.pdf (accessed 20 November 2009).
2. Attention was drawn to the problems facing
governments by the former UK Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, who was
quoted as saying: “There will be some people saying ‘we
can’t go ahead with an agreement on climate change, it’s
not the biggest priority.’ And, therefore, what you need
is countervailing forces. Some of those countervailing
forces come from popular mobilisation.” Quoted in:
D. Adam and J. Jowit, “People Power Vital to Climate
Deal—Minister,” The Guardian, 8 December 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/08/
ed-miliband-climate-politics-environment (accessed 21
May 2010). Similarly, Jules Peck, formerly Director of
the UK Conservative Party’s Quality of Life Policy Group
(which played a key role in proposing environmental
policy for the UK Conservative Party) writes: “Time and
again I have seen policy proposals watered-down in order
to stand some chance of being tolerated by an electorate
who are expected to resist any interventions that entail
personal economic costs” (Jules Peck, Director, Quality
of Life Policy Group, in correspondence with the
authors, 19 August 2009). Nonetheless, it seems clear
that far bolder government leadership is both urgent
and possible: By highlighting the problem of a lack of
electoral pressure, we are not seeking to detract attention
from the urgent need for political leadership.
3. Energy Savings Trust, “Getting Started: Ten
Ways to Save Energy, Money, and Help Prevent Climate
Change,”
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Easyways-to-stop-wasting-energy/Stop-wasting-energyand-cut-your-bills/Getting-started (accessed 8 February
2010).
VOLUME 52 NUMBER 4
4. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Climate
Change: What You Can Do,” http://www.epa.gov/
climatechange/wycd/home.html (accessed 8 February
2010).
5. D. J. C. McKay, Sustainable Energy—Without the
Hot Air (Cambridge, UK: UIT, 2008), 114
6. For a full discussion of the evidence for “spillover”
from one form of pro-environmental behavior to another,
see J. B. Thøgersen and T. Crompton “Simple and
Painless? The Limitations of Spillover in Environmental
Campaigning,” Journal of Consumer Policy 32 (2009):
141–163.
7. T. Crompton and T. Kasser, Meeting Environmental
Challenges: The Role of Human Identity (Godalming,
UK: WWF-UK, 2009), http:www.wwf.org.uk/change
(accessed 20 November 2009).
8. M. Buijzen and P. M. Valkenburg, “The Effects
of Television Advertising on Materialism, Parent-Child
Conflict, and Unhappiness: A Review of Research,”
Applied Developmental Psychology 24 (2003): 437–456.
9. See, for example, J. E. Brand and B. S. Greenberg,
“Commercials in the Classroom: The Impact of Channel
One Advertising,” Journal of Advertising 34 (1994):
18–21.
10. J. H. Pryor, B. Hurtado, V. B. Saenz, J. L.
Santos, and W. S. Korn, The American Freshman: FortyYear Trends, 1966–2006 (Los Angeles, CA: Higher
Education Research Institute, 2007), http://www.heri.
ucla.edu/PDFs/pubs/briefs/40yrTrendsResearchBrief.
pdf (accessed 18 February 2010).
11. B. E. Whitley Jr. and M. E. Kite, The Psychology
of Prejudice and Discrimination (Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth, 2006); M. Biernat, T. K. Vescio, S. A. Theno,
and C. S. Crandall, “Values and Prejudice: Understanding
the Impact of American Values on Outgroup Attitudes,”
in C. Seligman, J. M. Olson, and M. P. Zanna, eds., The
Psychology of Values (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1996),
153–189.
12. P. W. Schultz “Empathizing with Nature:
The Effects of Perspective Taking on Concern for
Environmental Issues,” Journal of Social Issues 56
(2000): 391–406.
13. G. W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (New
York: Perseus, 1954); T. F. Pettigrew, “Intergroup
Contact Theory,” Annual Review of Psychology 49
(1998), 65–85.
14. Whitley and Kite, note 11 above.
15. A. Leiserowitz, E. Maibach, & C. RoserRenouf, (2010) Climate Change in the American Mind:
Americans’ Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in
January 2010: Yale University and George Mason
University (New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate
Change, http://environment.yale.edu/uploads/American
sGlobalWarmingBeliefs2010.pdf (accessed 8 February
2010).
16. “Climate Scepticism ‘on the Rise’, BBC poll
shows.,” BBC-online, 7 February 2010, http://news.bbc.
co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8500443.stm (accessed 8 February
2010).
17. R. F. Baumeister, K. Dale, and K. L. Sommer
“Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings
in Modern Social Psychology: Reaction Formation,
Projection,
Displacement,
Undoing,
Isolation,
Sublimation, and Denial,” Journal of Personality 66
(1998): 1081–1124.
18. A. Homburg, A. Stolberg, and W. Wagner, “Coping
with Global Environmental Problems: Development and
First Validation of Scales,” Environment and Behaviour
39 (2007): 754–778.
19. See J. Macy and M. Y. Brown, Coming Back
to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World
(British Colombia: New Society Publishers, 1998);
JULY/AUGUST 2010
R. Hopkins, The Transition Handbook: From Oil
Dependency to Local Resilience (Totnes, UK: Green
Books, 2008); M. Gomes, “Altars of Extinction:
Honoring the Broken Circle of Life,” in L. Buzzell and
C. Chalquist, eds., Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in
Mind (San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 2009),
219–223.
20. Thøgersen and Crompton, note 6 above.
21. See, for example: Futerra, The Rules of the Game:
Principles of Climate Change Communications (London,
UK: Futerra, 2005); J. Collins, G. Thomas, R. Willis, and
J. Wilsdon, Carrots, Sticks and Sermons: Influencing
Public Behaviour for Environmental Goals, Version
4.0 (London, UK: Demos and Green Alliance, 2003);
S. Retallack, T. Lawrence, and M. Lockwood Positive
Energy: Harnessing People Power to Prevent Climate
Change (London, UK: IPPR, 2007); S. Hounsham,
Painting the Town Green: How to Persuade People
to Be Environmentally Friendly (London, UK: Green
Engage, 2006); C. Rose, A Tool For Motivation Based
Communication Strategy (Campaign Strategy, 2004),
http://www.campaignstrategy.org/maslow_campaign.pdf
(accessed 8 February, 2010).
22. There is a large body of research in social
psychology that establishes the importance of appeal to
intrinsic values in motivating people to engage in particular
behaviours. This work derives from self-determination
theory (SDT). See, for example, M. Vansteenkiste,
J. Simons, W. Lens, K. M. Sheldon, and E. L. Deci,
“Motivating Learning, Performance, and Persistence.
The Synergistic Effects of Intrinsic Goal Contents and
Autonomy-Supportive Contexts,” Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology 87 (2004): 246–260.
23. Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, “Top 10 Reasons
Not to Drive an Urban 4x4,” http://www.stopurban4x4s.
org.uk/reasons.htm (accessed 19 November 09).
24. Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, “What You
Can Do,” http://www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk/help.htm
(accessed 19 November 09).
25. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
(TEEB), Welcome to the TEEB website, http://www.
teebweb.org/AboutTEEB/Background/tabid/1038/
language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 16 November
2009).
26. D. J. McCauley, “Selling out on Nature,” Nature
443 (2006): 27–28 (Quote from page 28).
27. E. Marris, “Putting a Price on Biodiversity,”
Nature 462 (2009): 270–271. (Quote from page 271).
28. Ibid., page 271.
29. See, for example, T. Kasser, S. Cohn, A. D.
Kanner, and R.M . Ryan, “Some Costs of American
Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of
Value and Goal Conflicts,” Psychological Inquiry 18
(2007): 1–22; Whitley and Kite, note 16 above; W. G.
Stephan and C. W. Stephan, “An Integrated Threat Theory
of Prejudice,” in S. Oskamp, ed., Reducing Prejudice and
Discrimination (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2000): 23–45;
and J. Greenberg, S. Koole, and T. Pyszczynski, eds.,
Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology (New
York: Guilford Press, 2004).
30. See, for example, S. H. Schwartz, “Universals
in the Content and Structure of Values: Theory and
Empirical Tests in 20 Countries,” in M. P. Zanna, ed.,
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol.
25 (New York: Academic Press, 1992), 1–65; S. H.
Schwartz “Basic Human Values: Theory, Measurement,
and Applications,” Revue Française de Sociologie 47,
no.4 (2006): 249–288.
31. See, for example, B. Gatersleben, J. Meadows,
W. Abrahamse, and T. Jackson “Materialistic and
Environmental Values of Young People,” unpublished
manuscript, University of Surrey, UK; T. Kasser,
“Frugality, Generosity, and Materialism in Children and
www.environmentmagazine.org
Adolescents,” in K. A. Moore and L. H. Lippman, eds.,
What Do Children Need to Flourish? Conceptualizing
and Measuring Indicators of Positive Development (New
York: Springer Science, 2005), 357–373; K. M. Sheldon
and H. McGregor, “Extrinsic Value Orientation and the
Tragedy of the Commons,” Journal of Personality 68
(2000): 383–411; T. Kasser, “Cultural Values and the
Wellbeing of Future Generations: A Cross-National
Study,” Journal of Crosscultural Psychology (in
press). For a more comprehensive overview of relevant
literature, see Crompton and Kasser, note 7 above.
32. See, for example, S. Plous, “Is There Such a
Thing as Prejudice Towards Animals?” in S. Plous,
ed., Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination
(New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), 509–528; G. Saucier,
“Factor Structure of English-Language Personality TypeNouns,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
85 (2003): 695–708; and J.-P. Leyens, A. RodriguezPerez, R. Rodriguez-Torres, R. Gaunt, M.-P. Paladino,
J. Vaes, and S. Demoulin, “Psychological Essentialism
and the Differential Attribution of Uniquely Human
Emotions to Ingroups and Outgroups,” European
Journal of Social Psychology 31 (2001): 395–411. For a
more comprehensive overview of relevant literature, see
Crompton and Kasser, note 7, above.
33. A. Homburg, A. Stolberg, and W. Wagner “Coping
with Global Environmental Problems: Development and
First Validation of Scales,” Environment and Behaviour
39 (2007): 754–778; K. M. Norgaard, “‘People Want
to Protect Themselves a Little Bit’: Emotions, Denial,
and Social Movement Non-Participation,” Sociological
Inquiry 76 (2006): 372–396; S. Stoll-Kleemann, T.
O’Riordan, and C. C. Jaeger, “The Psychology of Denial
Concerning Climate Mitigation Measures: Evidence
from Swiss Focus Groups,” Global Environmental
Change 11 (2001): 107–117.
34. F. M. E. Grouzet, T. Kasser, A. Ahuvia, J.M.
Fernandez-Dols, Y. Kim, S. Lau, R.M. Ryan, S. Saunders,
P. Schmuck, and K.M. Sheldon, “The Structure of Goal
Contents Across 15 Cultures,” Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology 89 (2005): 800–816; Schwartz
1992, note 30, above; Schwartz 2006, note 30, above.
35. Biernat et al., note 11, above; M. Rokeach,
The Nature of Human Values (New York: Free press,
1973); L. S. Son Hing, W. Li, and M. P. Zanna,
“Inducing Hypocrisy to Reduce Prejudicial Responses
Among Aversive Racists,” Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology 38 (2002): 71–78; P. W. Schultz
“Empathizing with Nature: The Effects of Perspective
Taking on Concern for Environmental Issues,” Journal
of Social Issues 56 (2000): 391–406; Whitley and Kite,
note 11, above.
36. Homburg et al., note 18, above.
37. As an example, we draw attention to the work
of Rosemary Randall at Cambridge Carbon Footprint.
Randall applies her background as a psychotherapist
to the facilitation of “Carbon Conversations.” Led
by trained volunteer facilitators, groups of six to
eight members meet in homes, community centers,
workplaces, or other venues. Over the course of several
meetings, participants are engaged both emotionally
and practically, helping them overcome the barriers
often associated with making large carbon reductions.
See: http://cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/action/carbonconversations (accessed 8 February 2010).
38. K. W. Brown and T. Kasser, “Are Psychological
and Ecological Well-Being Compatible? The Role of
Values, Mindfulness, and Lifestyle,” Social Indicators
Research 74 (2005): 349–368; Brown, K. W., Kasser,
T., Ryan, R. M., Linley, P. A., & Orzech, K. (2009).
When what one has is enough: Mindfulness, financial
desire discrepancy, and subjective well-being. Journal
of Research in Personality, 43, 727–736; C. K. Gerner,
R. D. Siegel, and P. R. Fulton, eds., Mindfulness and
Psychotherapy (New York: Guilford Press, 2005).
environment 33