Climate change, sustainability and better places: winning hearts and minds

Last week’s contributor, psychologist Cliff Edwards, was asked how the pandemic and action on climate change might be linked. Here he expands his thoughts on that subject

Cliff Edwards, Psychologist and Behavioural Analyst

01 May 2020

Change or resist? The key is to be able to predict whether people will adapt to, or resist, change. Will the `change state` last long enough to re-code people?

The LTT online discussion on the Psychology of Change raised two very interesting questions: Can the pandemic experience and the upheaval it has brought be linked to the issue of climate change? Also, what might shift public thinking and behaviour in that regard?

The answer is ‘yes’ to both, but there are some important concepts from the world of psychology (and associated areas such as sales, marketing and counselling) that need to be understood.

The territory is fertile, and...