Acting in an environmentally friendly way is not always easy. One of the reasons is that often, it is quite unclear what abstract ideas like ”being climate conscious” really implies. What does it mean in concrete terms?

Psyched! is an initative to bring together environmental action and scientific psychology. The idea is to use psychological knowledge to increase the probability of actually taking action to help the environment. The concept is based on behavioral therapy, a more than 100 year old paradigm with massive empirical support. One of its founding principles is to avoid abstract etiquettes, and instead to clearly define what concepts mean.

Psyched! translates this principle into environmental action. We do not think that it is enough to encourage people to be climate smart. Our belief is that this concept need to be broken down into hands-on behaviors that can easily be conducted in your daily life. In that way it becomes a lot easier to realize what sustainability really means, and more actions can be completed.

So how do we turn these ideas into action? Through our website, psyched.se, which is an on-line community where people can sign up as users and start registering what they to for the environment. When they do so, beautiful things start happening on the website. The user can also get fine rewards from sponsoring organizations that are committed to helping the environment - and that get access to active users through Psyched.

Problem

In a near future, humanity will most likely face enormous challenges when it comes to taking the necessary measures to save the enviroment. Macro-level behavior changes will at some point be crucial to break the vicious cycle of overconsumtion. However, society is currently lacking efficient tools to make this possible. Quite often, the terms we use when discussing environmental issues are abstract and hard to grasp. What does it mean to be ”climate smart” or ”green”? Looking at scientific psychology, these fuzzy statements are a safe way NOT to achieve change.

Solution

We can start by establishing that more information or increased awareness not necessarily lead to action. What does, on the contrary, is helping people specify exact actions based on environmental values. Going from abstract to concrete terms will help people see how we can incorporate environmental action into daily life. By specifying scientifically approved behaviors, we can show that taking the first step toward a more sustainable lifestyle doesn’t have to be hard. In addition, starting to live more in line with your values will carry a considerable gain for your mental and global wellbeing.

Exemple

To put this idea into practice, we have constructed a web-based tool that not only helps people specify ideas, but that also includes the powerful feature of different reinforcement schedules. In behavior research, it is well established that positive consequences for good actions is much more efficient than punishing bad behavior. Therefore, the users of the Psyched! web tool will have the chance to gain privileges and benefits of different sorts, sponsored by our partner organizations. From the user’s point of view, you can conveniently skip most of the hassle of registering and simply log on with his or her Facebook account. The primary activity is to register the concrete set of behaviors conducted since the last visit. A central aspect of the web tool is each user’s personal interactive or tamagoshi-like garden. The more behaviors registered, the more viable this garden becomes – filling up the user’s screen with colourful flowers, trees and different animals. The user can also add behaviors of his or her own, by typing them into the ”suggestions” section. These suggested behaviors are scrutinized to ensure their environmental efficiency, and those that pass are added to the behavior database. This way, the users can contribute to the database and thereby inspire each other. From our parners’ point of view, Psyched! presents a unique way of promoting action in line with the organization’s values, and additionally to gain goodwill and visibility. By sponsoring specific behaviors characteristic of the organization, our partners can move from a passive to an active communication strategy. Furthermore, they can easily get in association with other organizations with similar values, fostering synergy and collaboration. Those who wish to promote products can sponsor with rewards for diligent users.

Marché

As far as we know, the crossover between scientific psychology and environmental action is a completely new niche, meaning that direct competitors are scarce. However, in a broader perspective, one could say that we will compete with a lot of other social networks, and also other NGO’s depending external funds. Nevertheless, we consider these organizations partners rather than competitors, able to complement and enrich Psyched!. Our concept conveniently works as a bridge between the organizations and individuals – the organizations have the specific expertise in each environmental field, Psyched! provides the measures to transform a passive member into an active user.