Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity Tom Crompton and Tim Kasser Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity Tom Crompton and Tim Kasser First published in 2009 by WWF-UK Panda House, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1XR www.wwf.org.uk © WWF-UK Distributed by Green Books Ltd. Foxhole, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EB www.greenbooks.co.uk Permission is granted to reproduce material in this volume without prior written consent so long as proper attribution is made. ISBN 978-1-900322-64-5 WWF’s Strategies for Change Project This publication is one of a series produced as part of WWF-UK’s Strategies for Change Project. This project seeks to examine the empirical basis for today’s dominant approaches to environmental communications and campaigns, and to ask why these are failing to create the level of change that is needed. Electronic versions of this book, and other related publications, can be freely downloaded at: www.wwf.org.uk/strategiesforchange. Join the debate! We hope that this short book will stimulate wide and critical debate – not just amongst the environmental movement, but amongst the third sector more generally. To help support this debate, we have set up a website, www. identitycampaigning.org, which we will use for developing these ideas further, testing them, and inviting critical comment. [...]... see, co-opting them risks making these environmentally problematic aspects of identity even more prevalent It is important to emphasise that we are not suggesting there is anything abnormal about these aspects of identity – quite the opposite These are ubiquitous facets of the human psyche They may be just as basic to the psyche of those who strive to minimise their environmental impact as they are in... group who define themselves in distinction to non-environmentalists, or as people who deploy a range of coping strategies in dealing with environmental problems If environmentalists are to help in the course of managing these aspects of identity in wider society, then they must first come to recognise these aspects of identity in themselves Highlighting the iatrogenic effects of some environmental campaigns... the suffering of both individual non -human animals and the destruction of the nonhuman natural world (including other species and ecosystems) Human attitudes PART I: HUMAN IDENTITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES towards other animals offer a particularly clear example of the human tendency to display prejudice towards non -human nature as an out-group Several empirical studies have examined the proposition... theorists agree that identity influences how people respond to the broader social world and how they choose to live their lives, and that this sense of self emerges from the confluence of internal psychological dynamics on the one hand and the social context on the other Clearly there is substantial room for subjectivity in deciding which aspects of the human psyche in general, and of human identity in particular,... features of society that currently promote the environmentally problematic aspects of identity Finally, each of the next three chapters will also present ways to activate positive features of identity While thus far we have focused on those aspects of identity that contribute to environmental degradation, there are many aspects of the human psyche that can promote sustainability For each of the three... range of third-sector organisations PART I: HUMAN IDENTITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES In Part I we identify three aspects of human identity that empirical research suggests are associated with behavioural decisions that often serve to frustrate optimal responses to environmental challenges Identity refers to people’s sense of themselves: who they think of themselves as being Most identity theorists... the mainstream environmental movement has rarely invested resources into examining these environmentally problematic aspects of human identity, identifying the social structures that enable and accentuate them, and working to change these structures so as to encourage more environmentally beneficial aspects of human identity And yet, until an understanding of the person is integrated with current environmental. .. the existence of evidence suggesting that these aspects of identity might be amenable to a variety of interventions We make no claim that the three aspects of identity we have selected constitute a complete list, or that we have even succeeded in identifying the most important features of the human psyche involved in frustrating the emergence of proportional responses to environmental problems Rather,... concern for environmental issues is an extension of the interconnectedness between two people (p.394) Much as with aspects of social identity, an environmental identity offers a sense of association and belonging to a group So, to the extent that people consider themselves part of nature, or see nature as part of their in-group, we would anticipate that they will be more likely to act in pro -environmental. .. strategies, and until the environmental movement begins to tackle these aspects of identity and the social norms and structures that enable them, we fear that responses to the environmental crisis will remain inadequate 5 6 INTRODUCTION The first step in this process, of course, is to examine more publicly how certain aspects of human identity are associated with environmental problems; Part I of this book . Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity Tom Crompton and Tim Kasser Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity Tom Crompton and. publication, Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity, helps clarify how the environment movement and the third sector as a whole can begin to respond to these challenges. The authors. suggesting there is any- thing abnormal about these aspects of identity – quite the opposite. These are ubiquitous facets of the human psyche. They may be just as basic to the psyche of those