Download School letter4

Superintendent
Mary Francis Cellan
Superintendent
Mary Frances Callan
Palo Alto Unified School District
25 Churchill Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94306
650-329-3700
Fax: 650-326-7463
(650) 329-3737
(650) 321-3810
(650) 329-3737
(650) 321-3810
[email protected]
Secretary
Kathleen Ruegsegger
[email protected]
Paly
[email protected] Principal Scott Laurence 329-3831
[email protected] Secretary to the Principal Carolyn Benfield 329-3831
[email protected] environmental science paly Ms. Brimhall 650 329-3710 x7391
[email protected] video Ron Williamson 650-329-3854
Gunn
Noreen
Likins
354-8203
Video production & science?
[email protected]
Norma
Street
354-8288
nstreet
nlikins
Principal
Main Office-Principal's
Dear X,
A group of nine Stanford faculty (e.g., Paul Ehrlich and Albert Bandura), spanning behavioral,
humanities, and climate science disciplines, are submitting a grant to study how to motivate
individuals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Part of the project aims to (1) create a
Climate Change Reality TV program through the collaboration of high school students with
professional film makers and scientists, (2) show the program to other students in the school, and
(3) measure whether behavioral change occurs as a result. The estimated time commitment for
viewing the show would be 10 minutes per week for eight weeks, and the estimated time
commitment for questionnaires measuring behavioral change are likely to total 30-60 minutes
before and after the eight week viewing period.
We believe that your high school would be an excellent match for this project, particularly
because it has a strong video production program, offers an Environmental Science class, and
has very creative and bright students that will both enrich the project and be enriched by it.
In the next couple of days we will contact your administrative assistant to set up an appointment
to discuss the potential collaboration in more detail and answer any questions you have. Also,
the Stanford grant is due April 3, and it would be useful for us to obtain a letter of support before
then (no commitment implied; we can draft the letter and drop it off at the school).
Sincerely,
Carrie Armel
Post-doctoral Scholar, Stanford Economics Department
FYI - For additional information and participants, see below.
Structure of CC Reality TV. The basic idea would be to air a short episode once a week for
several weeks. There would be 4 components interspersed in the show:




(1) A competition between groups (e.g., clubs, classes, or grades) to see who can reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions the most by the end of the show’s “season”, and fun
illustrations of how to do so.
(2) Footage of environmental techies who might share interesting ways of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, or enthusiastic volunteers who would work with Stanford
researchers in the psychology or business schools to develop ways of motivating their
peers to reduce emissions.
(3) Remote interviews with people around the world who are currently being affected by
climate change.
(4) Footage on Stanford scientists, engineers, and economists interacting with policy
makers, the public, businesses, non-profits, and the media. This would demonstrate
what actions are being taken to address climate change, and capture conflicts and
obstacles.
Benefits for your school and students:




Provide recognition for your school: (1) If successful, this work may be used as pilot work
to inform a larger scale (perhaps national) program. (2) The work might be developed as
supplementary educational materials. In both cases, your school would be
acknowledged and might have the opportunity to participate in additional collaborations.
Provide an opportunity for talks and group interactions at your school with Stanford
faculty and postdoctoral scholars.
Provide students with a deeper understanding of current local and global affairs,
environmental issues, behavioral science disciplines, and public service. Specifically, the
program will cover (1) how science, technology, economics, and government interact to
produce public policy; (2) how to reduce emissions and fuel consumption, save energy,
and thereby save money; (3) how to apply findings from psychology, sociology, and other
disciplines. (4) It will also encourage public service; provide tools for performing public
service by demonstrating how to develop interventions to promote change (that can be
transferred to other groups and issues); and emphasize the interconnectedness of
current issues by illustrating how our actions affect the environment and also affect
people in other parts of the world. Finally, it will (5) enhance college applications.
Provide a unique opportunity for a video production collaboration. The film producers
include Kristine Samuelson, a Stanford professor and documentary filmmaker for over 20
years, and another producer with a Stanford masters degree in film who is closer to the
age of the high school students.
Additional notes:


The project would follow standard procedures for obtaining consent (human subjects
research consent and also consent of anyone filmed; acquired from individuals and their
parents if the individuals are minors).
The project is in its formative stage and is thus flexible in the form it takes and in its size.
A small pilot would likely be initially performed with one class or a group of after-school
volunteers and then the parties would reassess whether to proceed with a larger version,
and what that version would look like.

The Stanford team would work closely with the school's administration to ensure that we
address any concerns the school might have and to interface with the school rhythms
and curriculum to minimize disruption.
Participants:
Carrie Armel, Economics & Psychology (Postdoc). Dr. Armel studies how affect and motivation
influence individual decision making using psychological and neuroscientific tools.
Albert Bandura, Psychology (Professor). (Advising). Dr. Bandura studies self and communal
efficacy, social learning theory (modeling/imitation), and moral disengagement
Paul Ehrlich, Biological Sciences (Professor). Dr. Ehrlich studies conservation biology, ecology,
evolution, and behavior of natural populations.
Michael Mastrandrea, CESP (Postdoc). Dr. Mastrandea develops integrated assessment
modeling of the climate and economy as a tool for climate policy analysis.
Benoit Monin, Psychology (Professor). Dr. Monin studies, perceptions of group norms, the
moralization of everyday life, cognitive dissonance, and affect and memory.
Hayagreeva Rao, Business School (Professor). Dr. Rao applies quantitative sociological
methods to study the creation and transformation of social structures using real world data.
Tom Robinson, School of Medicine (Assistant Professor). Dr. Robinson develops and evaluates
health promotion and disease prevention interventions for children and adolescents.
Kristine Samuelson, Communications (Professor). Dr. Samuelson has been an independent
producer for twenty-two years and teaches documentary producing and directing.
Steve Schneider, Biological Sciences (Professor). Dr. Schneider studies climate change, such as
climatic modeling of paleoclimates and human impacts on climate. An author on the International
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the authoritative international publication on climate change.
He has had significant interactions with policy makers and industry, which is relevant to CC
Reality TV component 4.
Baba Shiv, Business School (Associate Professor). Dr. Shiv is the lead PI on this proposal. He
has published on decision making, from consumer behavior to neuroscience.
Jeff Shrager, Symbolic Systems (Consulting Professor). Dr. Shrager studies how novices learn
science, and how to design systems to facilitate this learning.
A Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Climate Change Impact
This proposal aims to develop, deploy, and evaluate an intervention that motivates individuals to
reduce their impact on climate change by modifying their behavior. The form of the intervention
could range widely; for example, it could be in the form of an educational program, a marketing
campaign, or some other mechanism. The intervention we are pursuing most heavily involves
“Climate Change Reality TV”, described below.
Expertise from several behavioral science disciplines will be useful in designing the intervention.
Knowledge from marketing and psychology will be important for developing an intervention that
will target the social and motivational drives that can produce the desired behavioral outcome,
and for getting this behavior to spread and "stick". Cognitive psychologists or practitioners may
help effectively display environmental information (e.g., how to quantify energy) in support
materials. Work in sociology using threshold models to study diffusion and collective behavior
could help identify the proportion of individuals and time horizon necessary to reach a "threshold"
or critical mass for getting the behavior adopted as a norm. Individuals working in the areas of
climate science and policy will advise on what behavior changes would result in the largest
decreases in CO2 emissions. Individuals with expertise in film would be critical for the reality TV
intervention.
After development, the intervention will be deployed and evaluated for its success. Techniques
will be adopted from behavioral health intervention research because this work is well-suited to
implementing interventions in the real world, to measuring behavioral change practically in large
groups, and to analyzing numerous moderator variables. The overall efficacy of the intervention
will be evaluated using fairly direct measures of behavior change such as change in the number
of cars in a parking lot. The efficacy of different aspects of the intervention will be tested by
manipulating treatments between subjects. Different treatments might include the method of
disseminating information (e.g. sending a mass mailing versus having the intervention endorsed
by a small number of "popular" people who will "spread the word") as well as the content and its
display in supporting material (e.g. wording that frames the suggested behaviors with emotionallyladen versus factual information). The role of moderator variables in the intervention will be
determined by obtaining detailed data from a subset of individuals; data such as initial
environmental attitudes, initial body weight, and personality traits will be acquired to determine
which segments of the population the treatment was most effective for, and what characteristics
these individuals possess. Methodologies employed by sociologists could also prove useful to
better understand how such behaviors propagate through the population and how to facilitate this.
Climate Change Reality TV
An hour-long episode of Climate Change Reality TV would be aired each week for one season.
There would be 4 components interspersed in every episode: (1) A competition between dorms or
other divisions of campus to see who can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions the most by the
end of the show’s “season”. (2) Footage of a handful of representatives from each dorm/group,
selected for being social networkers and environmental techies. Each group's reps would employ
a different set of psychological and marketing strategies to determine which are most successful
for motivating groups to reduce GHG emissions. (3) Remote interviews with people around the
world who are currently being affected by climate change. (4) Footage on Stanford scientists,
engineers, and economists interacting with policy makers, the public, businesses, non-profits, and
the media. This would demonstrate what actions are being taken to address climate change, and
capture conflicts and obstacles.
The show would utilize several successful principles from psychology and marketing, some of
which are especially effective when deployed using television. For example, it could: (1) facilitate
social modeling/imitation, (2) demonstrate that “together we can make a difference” (by
reinforcing behavior with feedback regarding success, and showing that others can be trusted to
cooperate), (3) make the effects of climate change a reality rather than spatially and temporally
distant, and (4) educate; with an educated public, government and corporations will be under
more pressure to “do the right thing”, and (5) motivate people through social comparison and
competition, which have been shown to be much stronger motivators than lay people think.
The intervention is based in part on the Sabido method of using specific psychological principles
in soap operas. The method has proven to be one of the most effective means of producing
prosocial behavioral change, such as reducing domestic violence and birthrates in Third World
countries. There are also a number of children's programs that have been heavily engineered
using psychological principles that have greatly increased literacy etc., such as Sesame Street.
A Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Human Impact on Climate Change
(abbreviated description)
This proposal aims to: (1) Design and test core climate change messages to be used in print and
media, and (2) Pilot an intervention that motivates individuals to modify their behavior in order to
reduce their contribution to climate change. Meta-goals are to develop a theoretical and
methodological framework, and to derive individual and macro behavioral principles, for use with
other climate change interventions and new populations.
Scientists from several disciplines will develop climate change messages. Knowledge from
marketing and psychology will be important for developing messages and an intervention that will
target the social and motivational drives that can produce the desired behavioral outcome, and for
getting this behavior to spread and "stick". Cognitive psychologists or practitioners may help
effectively display environmental information (e.g., how to quantify energy). Work in sociology
using threshold models to study diffusion and collective behavior could help identify the
proportion of individuals and time horizon necessary to reach a "threshold" or critical mass for
getting the behavior adopted as a norm. Individuals working in the areas of climate science and
policy will advise on what behavior changes would result in the largest decreases in CO2
emissions.
An 10-minute episode of Climate Change Reality TV would be aired each week for eight weeks.
There would be 4 components interspersed in every episode: (1) A competition between high
schools or grades in a high school to see who can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions the
most by the end of the show's "season". (2) Footage of a handful of representatives from each
group, selected for being social networkers and environmental techies. Each group's reps would
employ a different set of psychological and marketing strategies to determine which are most
successful for motivating groups to reduce GHG emissions. (3) Remote interviews with people
around the world who are currently being affected by climate change. (4) Footage on Stanford
scientists, engineers, and economists interacting with policy makers, the public, businesses, nonprofits, and the media. This would demonstrate what actions are being taken to address climate
change, and capture conflicts and obstacles.
The show would utilize several successful principles from psychology and marketing, some of
which are especially effective when deployed using television. For example, it could: (1) facilitate
social modeling/imitation, (2) demonstrate that "together we can make a difference" (by
reinforcing behavior with feedback regarding success, and showing that others can be trusted to
cooperate), (3) make the effects of climate change a reality rather than spatially and temporally
distant, and (4) educate; with an educated public, government and corporations will be under
more pressure to "do the right thing", and (5) motivate people through social comparison and
competition, which have been shown to be much stronger motivators than lay people think.
The intervention is based in part on the Sabido method of using specific psychological principles
in soap operas. The method has proven to be one of the most effective means of producing
prosocial behavioral change, such as reducing domestic violence and birthrates in Third World
countries. There are also a number of children's programs that have been heavily engineered
using psychological principles that have greatly increased literacy etc., such as Sesame Street.
After development, the intervention will be deployed and evaluated for its success. Techniques
will be adopted from behavioral health intervention research because this work is well-suited to
implementing interventions in the real world, to measuring behavioral change practically in large
groups, and to analyzing numerous moderator variables. The overall efficacy of the intervention
will be evaluated using fairly direct measures of behavior change such as change in the number
of cars in a parking lot. The efficacy of different aspects of the intervention will be tested by
manipulating treatments between subjects. Different treatments might include the method of
disseminating information (e.g. sending a mass mailing versus having the intervention endorsed
by a small number of "popular" people who will "spread the word") as well as the content and its
display in supporting material (e.g. wording that frames the suggested behaviors with emotionallyladen versus factual information). The role of moderator variables in the intervention will be
determined by obtaining detailed data from a subset of individuals; data such as initial
environmental attitudes, initial body weight, and personality traits will be acquired to determine
which segments of the population the treatment was most effective for, and what characteristics
these individuals possess. Methodologies employed by sociologists could also prove useful to
better understand how such behaviors propagate through the population and how to facilitate this.