Association for Behavior Analysis International

The rate of biodiversity loss, degradation of the atmosphere, global warming and other human-induced changes to our environment are accelerating and exceeding planetary boundaries for sustained human development. Governance and management of human behavior is needed to go beyond sectoral reduction of negative externalities and now extend to protecting and restoring a global habitat fit for humanity. This invited symposium presents three provocative papers describing roles for behavior analysts in preparing us for what lies ahead and to be resilient in the face of coming challenges.

People interested in a sustainable planet

• Describe the many opportunties for behavior analysts to work to improve our planet for humanity.

For decades scientists who study the Earth's atmosphere, waterways, and the ground have issued fact-filled warnings about our planet's declining health and its ability to continue to sustain human activity. Human behavior is responsible for the Earth's rapidly changing climate and the depletion of some ofits limited resources to dangerously levels. While behavior analysts have contributed to at least partial solutions to many problems faced by society—improving education, helping people achieve healthier life styles, making highways and factories safer, caring for people exhibiting challenging and life-threatening behavior, and treating individuals with autism to name just a few—our field has paid scant attention to the impact of human behavior on the environment. But this is changing. Behavior analysis is uniquely poised to contribute to a broad range of interventions to promote the husbandry of our planet's resources, restore damaged eco-systems, and perhaps prepare us to adapt and be resilient in the face of inevitable changes to come. This talk will survey some of the initiatives developing within the behavior analysis community in response to climate change and challenges to sustaining a healthy planet for future generations.

'Sustainable' consumer choices pose a paradox. A sustainable choice may pay off in the future but most likely has no immediate positive impact. Punishing 'non-sustainable' consumer choices through taxes and surcharges is politically unpopular, regressive and often unfeasible. Instead, the challenge for motivating sustainable consumption choices is to make the payoff for these choices fairly immediate and fairly certain. These payoffs may not necessarily be monetary or material; they can also be social. The Behavior Perspective Model differentiates between informational and utilitarian reinforcement; an important concept in understanding and motivating sustainable consumer choices. Strategies involved in increasing the immediate informational reinforcement of consumer goods, immediate economic incentives or 'green choices' and manipulating motivating operations for such choices are promising beginnings. The challenge here is to develop 'set and forget' interventions that will nudge consumers towards sustainable choices. Interventions based on a behavioral economic analysis of consumer choice, combined with a deft use of technology will lead the way in changing consumer choices from destructive overconsumption to constructive sustainable choices.

The problems of sustainability are deeply woven into the fabric of modern society. Current attempts to address problems like climate change and energy depletion are mainly centered on making energy use more efficient and maintaining an economy of perpetual growth on a planet of finite resources. An alternative set of solutions emerges from cultural reinvention in which work time is reduced and noneconomic reinforcers assume greater individual and societal importance. This type of cultural reinvention is inherent in B. F. Skinner's WaldenTwo, Tibor Scitovsky's proposal for an arts-based society, Paul Schafer's call for a cultural renaissance to supplant our current economic age, in the voluntarysimplicity movement, and in bohemian subcultures. Potential examples of behavior-analysis applications and research to facilitate cultural reinvention are provided.