This TED Talk by Dan Pink lays it out beautifully.  Extrinsic rewards (as presumed by the theory of self-interest) lead to poor performance in every situation except where (a) the rules are clearly defined and (b) the outcome is known in advance.  The challenges we face are NOT this kind of problem.
Link to Video [Embedding [...]

Adam Corner just pointed this ad out to me. What are the likely impacts of an advertisement like this? Ed Gillespie suggests that it will be counterproductive, because…
the danger is that by pumping up the high octane drama of an ad, you increase the risk of viewers feeling manipulated and dismissing it as pure propaganda
Another [...]

I have written previously on this blog about veering dramatically from hope to despair, and I think I may have found the reason for it.  I think it’s because as a society we are travelling in two opposite directions, at the same time, at increasing speed.  Two recent articles relating to economics and CSR really bring [...]

George Monbiot does us all a huge service by underscoring the importance of beginning to understand and respond to the psychological impact of an awareness of climate change.
Old men, George Monbiot suggests in Clive James isn’t a sceptic, he’s a sucker - but this may be the reason (today’s Guardian), may be more [...]

Also published at Cognitive Policy Works.
This video was released as part of Bill McKibben’s global awareness-building exercise last week for 350.org,an organization promoting the idea that carbon emission levels above 350 parts per million are dangerous:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdz555JBIwY&feature=player_embedded

I’d like to treat this as a case study in visual metaphors and conceptual frames to show how insights into [...]

A couple of weeks ago a new ad started being shown on television in the UK highlighting the need to act on CO2. In the light of how many of the posts here touch on advertising, I would be interested in identity campaigners’ views on it. It’s at the bottom of DECC’s [...]

For those who don’t know, Kevin Roberts is the worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.  As an employee of the recently formed Saatchi Saatchi Fallon group, I stay closer to what he’s up to than most.  His most recent effort on the sustainability front comes through Adam Werbach’s Saatchi S outfit; Adam is a leading figure [...]

Shouldn’t advertisements that deliberately work to drive positional consumption be banned, working as they do to undermine the values that must underpin concern about global challenges like climate change?
Which is more damaging - the highly polluting car (219gCo2/km) or the psychological havoc that Lexus’s ad agency wreak in selling it?
How will we come to view [...]

Republished from Cognitive Policy Works.
Last week I wrote about how fun may be important for efforts to advance the sustainability movement.  In Fun Theory and the Ethics of Marketing I distinguished the ethical problems with brand marketing (exploitation of human motivation to drive consumerism) from the prospects for using motivational psychology to engage the populace [...]

There has been a recent spate of opinion pieces, bemoaning the lack of passion, heart, emotion and related ‘affective’ aspects of how we (public, leadership, etc) are responding to the urgent pressures concerning environmental issues, including climate change.
The general tenor of these pieces tends to express frustration, bewilderment, and sometimes [...]