Nudging Climate Action & Happiness

Jiaying Zhao
University of British Columbia

Humanity has six years left to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to prevent the worst effects of climate change. However, current narratives, steeped in despair and doom, are failing to motivate collective action. This talk presents a radical paradigm shift: A fusion of happiness science and climate science designed to ignite widespread climate action by tapping into the power of joy. My colleagues, Liz Dunn and Jade Radke, and I have conducted a series of pre-registered lab and field experiments to demonstrate both how to nudge high-impact actions to reduce carbon emissions while also promoting happiness, and how happiness benefits can increase the likelihood to take climate action. I’ll also discuss implications for climate policy and communication.

Jiaying Zhao, a.k.a. JZ, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She is also a co-founder of UBC’s Decision Insights for Business & Society (UBC-DIBS) and a UBC Sauder Distinguished Scholar.

JZ uses psychological principles to design behavioural solutions to address environmental and financial sustainability challenges. She is a faculty affiliate of the Stone Centre for Wealth and Inequality at the Vancouver School of Economics and the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley, and an invited researcher at J-PAL at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1. Wildfire Risk and Resilience in Canada: What Motivates and Impedes Personal- and Property-Level Risk Mitigation?
   Kaitlyn Fallow* (Impact and Innovation Unit, Privy Council Office, and Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada), Vivian Li (Impact and Innovation Unit, Privy Council Office), Bryan Bogdanski & Keldi Forbes (Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada), & Sarah Wall & Kieran Findlater (Impact and Innovation Unit, Privy Council Office)
   
   Making Canadian communities more resilient to wildfire will be of critical importance in the coming decades as climate change impacts continue to worsen. This study explored the factors that motivate and impede adoption of wildfire risk mitigation measures at the household level and tested the effects of several messaging interventions (e.g., the shared nature of wildfire risk, the economic benefits of risk mitigation, and the health effects of wildfire/smoke exposure) on intentions to adopt these measures going forward.
   

2. Increasing Organ Donor Registrations Among BC Public Servants
   Karen Smallwood* (BC Ministry of Emergency Management & Climate Readiness), Talent Pun (Activision Blizzard), Shellee Ritzman (Metro Vancouver), Amy Watt (Lululemon), & Kate White (University of British Columbia)
   
   This project explores the effectiveness of low-cost, scalable behavioural interventions—specifically through targeted e-newsletters—to increase organ donor registrations in British Columbia, addressing the post-pandemic decline and enhancing the province's capacity to meet the demand for lifesaving transplants.
   

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Track 1: Applying BI to Financial Challenges

1. Flexibility vs. Commitment in Saving for Emergencies: Interventions to Reduce the Intention-Behaviour Gap of Millennials in South Africa
   Marna Landman* (Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa)
   
   An online randomised controlled experiment was conducted to explain how opposing preferences for commitment and flexibility affect emergency saving intentions and actions when scarcity is perceived. The study found that both the commitment and flexibility treatments were effective to increase immediate saving intention, and endured for some subgroups to decrease intention-behaviour gaps 30 days post the intervention.
   

2. Testing the Sensitivity of Post-Secondary Institution Decisions to Certainty in Financial Aid Provisions
   Annabel Thornton*, Angelique Saweczko, & Dwayne Benjamin (University of Toronto)  
   
   Information frictions can provide a significant obstacle to the efficiency of needs-based financial aid programs. As information alone is often insufficient to generate change in enrolment decisions, this project determines the impact of early financial aid guarantees on enrolment decisions through a randomized controlled trial for prospective undergraduate students.
   

Track 2: Applying BI to Health Challenges

1. How Behavioural Insights Are Increasing HPV Vaccine Uptake in Bangladesh
   Julie Szabo* (Capulet Communications), Sarah Francis & Sohail Agha (Behavioural Insights Lab), & Syju John (Capulet Communications)
   
   Last year, Bangladesh announced the rollout of free HPV vaccines for girls. This is a story about how behavioural insights are helping to vaccinate more girls and cut the number of cervical cancer deaths in Bangladesh.
   

2. A Behaviourally-Informed Approach to Food Consumption in Jersey's Primary Schools
   Owen Powell* (Influence at Work), Martin Knight (Government of Jersey), Jessica May (Government of Jersey), & Clara Federrath (Influence at Work)
   
   Obesity is a health crisis straining public services worldwide. While the conventional approach addresses adult symptoms, eating habits form early. With Government of Jersey, we implemented a behaviour-first approach through the school system to tackle the root causes. The '4 As approach' offers a model to achieve long-term health improvements.
   

Track 3: Applying BI to the Climate Crisis

1. Meta-Analysis on the Efficacy of Behavioral, Information, and Economic Strategies in Increasing Energy-Efficiency Adoption Among Households
   Tarun Khanna* (University of British Columbia), Diana Danilenko (MCC), Lukas Tomberg (RWI), Sven  Hansteen (RWI), Mark  Andor (RWI), Paul Lohmann (Cambridge), & Jan Minx (MCC)
   
   Energy efficiency is considered a pivotal option for decarbonization and features prominently in the policy agenda. This paper evaluates the efficacy of economic, information, and behavioral interventions on willingness to pay for energy efficient appliances, market share of efficient appliances, and the subsequent savings in energy consumption using a machine-learning assisted systematic review.
   

2. Explaining Public Support for Net-Zero Climate Policy Instruments: Perceptions of Effectiveness and Fairness under Competing Frames
   Aaron Hoyle* & Katya Rhodes* (University of Victoria)
   
   This study examines factors influencing public support for different types of net-zero climate policies in Canada, focusing on perceptions of policy effectiveness and fairness, and the impact of message framing.
   

Track 4: Applying BI to Government Challenges

1. Testing Behaviorally Informed Messages to Strengthen Canadians' Resistance to Climate-Related Misinformation
   Kulpreet Cheema*, Kathryn Harper, Kaitlyn Fallow, Sarah Wall, & Kieran Findlater (Impact and Innovation Unit, Privy Council Office)
   
   Climate-related misinformation and disinformation is a growing issue that has the potential to erode public trust in institutions and impede progress towards Canada's climate and environmental goals. Results from a randomized controlled trial found behaviorally informed interventions can improve Canadians' ability to identify climate-related misinformation and reduce their intention to share it.
   

2. Moving Beyond the Pandemic: Applying Behavioural Insights to the Use of Personal Protective Measures Against Respiratory Infectious Diseases 
   Paniz Tavakoli* (Privy Council Office), Tyler Good (Public Health Agency of Canada), Klajdi Puka (Privy Council Office), Sean Hinatsu & Toju Ogunremi (Public Health Agency of Canada), Christine Kormos & Kieran Findlater (Privy Council Office), & Mark Morrissey (Public Health Agency of Canada)
   
   This randomized controlled trial (n = 3,595) tested the effectiveness of online behaviourally-informed resources designed to increase Canadians' intentions to improve indoor ventilation in homes, with the goal of reducing the spread of respiratory infectious diseases. The study also explored Canadians' attitudes and beliefs regarding the use of ventilation measures. Results revealed that exposure to the behaviourally-informed resources led to significantly higher self-reported intentions to improve ventilation compared to current Government of Canada guidance products.
   

Track 5: Webinar About Behavioural Insights Courses
(In this track, there will be a short webinar plus time for Q&A.)

Responding to the Climate Crisis 

The climate crisis is not one single challenge, but rather a family of interconnected challenges that touch almost every aspect of life on our planet. In this session, we’ll look at three different challenges:

1. Planetary Healthcare: Andrea MacNeill (Vancouver General Hospital) will talk about the environmental impacts of healthcare and the relationship between human health and the health of our planet.

2. Conservation: Don Carruthers den Hoed (University of British Columbia & PARKS+ Collective) will talk about how good and bad behaviour inside and outside our parks impacts area-based conservation.

3. Disaster Preparedness & Reponse: Naureen Naqvi (UNICEF) will talk about preparing for and responding to disasters, which are increasing in size and frequency as our planet warms.

After our panelists introduce their challenges, Carl Jensen (BC BIG) will moderate a discussion about the role behavioural insights can play in tackling all three challenges. They will also discuss the power of creating partnerships and combining methodologies. Finally, our panelists will share lessons learned and next steps.

1. Behavioural Strategies to Combat AI-Enabled Retail Investor Scams
   Riona Carriaga* (Behavioural Insights Team), Matthew Kan*, Patrick Di Fonzo & Meera Paleja (Ontario Securities Commission), & Sasha Tregebov & Amna Raza (Behavioural Insights Team)
   
   The rapid rise of artificial intelligence presents an urgent and significant challenge for retail investors and securities regulators as AI increasingly enables sophisticated investment frauds and scams that threaten Canadian consumers. To address this, we conducted a 4-arm randomized controlled trial with 2,010 Canadians to test the effectiveness of mitigation strategies and found that AI-enhanced scams are significantly more compelling, but interventions like inoculation and web browser plug-ins can effectively reduce susceptibility and protect investors.
   

2. Using Behavior Change Communications to Tackle the Fentanyl Crisis
   Penny Norman* (Rescue Agency)
   
   How we used communications and BI to tackle risk denial and normalized carrying Naloxone with those aged 18-35.
   

3. The Impact of Behaviorally Informed Communications on Uptake of a Cover Crop Cost-Share Program
   Cecilia Shang*, Jessica Li*, & Dana Guichon (ideas42), and Sarah Carlson, Lydia English, & Morgan Jennings (PFI) 
   
   To protect farmers and our food supply from the ravages of extreme weather, we must accelerate the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices. In this project, we ran three randomized controlled trials, which showed both the potential value and limitations of light-touch, behaviorally informed communications to increase enrollment in a cover crop cost-share program in Iowa.