Climate Memo 5 – Tangibility: Build Hope Through Self-Efficacy
TL;DR: When attempting to inspire action on complex, global, or existential problems, it’s easy to overwhelm the audience with the magnitude of the problem. To combat this, you must create a sense of hope through showing, as explicitly as possible, how individuals can make a positive impact by taking part in your desired action.
People tend to be more motivated by hope than by fear (Dasandi et al., 2021). One way to make people feel hopeful is to show them how their actions can make a difference.
This is particularly apparent with climate change. The outpouring of negative messages and overwhelming facts and figures can often feel like too much. It causes many to lose hope. In the face of such an existential problem with so many interconnected and interdisciplinary issues, how can one individual’s actions make a difference? It is this thought pattern that leads to inaction (Heald, 2017).
Thus, building the belief that an individual’s actions can have impact – their sense of self efficacy – is vital to maintaining climate optimism and garnering momentum for a greener future.
How do you make people believe that the action you want them to take will make a tangible difference? One of the most critical components is the use of tone. Negative rhetoric and an overemphasis on the problem will immediately turn people off. If a problem seems too big, we often resort to the aphorism “don’t stress over what you can’t control.” The action must be perceived as attainable and empower the audience.
To achieve this, celebrate the little wins. Show people explicitly how their actions contribute to the solution. If possible, personally acknowledge their contribution or behavior change. Congratulate or thank your audience for participating to show that their actions are being recognized. Most of all, maintain a positive perspective.
The non-profit organization Save the Children does an exemplary job of building self-efficacy. Their campaigns often show the positive work they are doing: combating child hunger and disease, increasing access to education, and protecting children in conflict zones. They don’t show the children who they’re unable to reach; they show the good they’re able to accomplish with the help of their generous donors.
Save the Children explicitly shows the impact that the amount of money people contribute can have: $50 can feed three children for a month, $150 will buy 30 blankets for children in war zones, etc. The organization also sends messages to donors thanking them for their participation. To take that a step further, Save the Children will also connect contributors with a child pen-pal, so donors can personally interact and connect with the children they support.
In short, Save the Children makes its donors part of the process as much as possible. This empowers donors and shows them that their money is making a genuine difference in improving children’s lives.
Written by Katie Russell
Edited by Madeline Fisher
Featured Image by Pexels from Pixabay
