Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Can psychology help manipulate people into accepting climate alarmism, and adjusting their personal lifestyles? According to The Conversation, the answer might be yes – but people have to believe and trust the information they are given.
The Paris agreement on climate change calls for a global responsibility to cooperate. As we are often reminded, we urgently and drastically need to limit our use of one shared resource – fossil fuels – and its effect on another – the climate. But how realistic is this goal, both for national leaders and for us? Well, psychology may hold some answers.
Psychologists and economists have long explored the conflict between short-term individual and long-term collective interests when dealing with shared resources. Think of the commons dilemma: the scenario in which a field for grazing cattle works well when everyone cooperates by sticking to one cow each, but which leads to the so-called “tragedy of the commons” if more selfish drives take over.
It is useful to think about overuse of fossil fuels and its effect on the climate as a similar dilemma. If we were to think of this from a purely economic perspective, we would likely act selfishly. But psychological research should make us more optimistic about cooperation.
…
Social beings
We don’t identify and act just as individuals but as members of social groups. We may belong to a family, a community, a nation and the planet, and behave in ways that benefit the group rather than the individual. A shared group identity (such as identifying yourself as a member of your nation or the local school community) can increase cooperation, especially if we believe that group shares our values about the environment. If you strongly identify with your community you don’t need an incentive to cooperate.
But at what level should this shared identity be emphasised? Emphasising national identity can prevent cooperation between nations, by increasing competition between them. However, this can be used to an advantage, since nations care about their reputation. So perhaps they could compete to be better than others at meeting climate change goals?
…
… Big decisions could be facilitated by many of the psychological processes we have described, that focus on global identity, long-term gain rather than short-term loss, intergroup competition and reputation, rewards, shared norms, providing sufficient and clear information, and instilling trust and transparency.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/how-psychology-can-help-us-solve-climate-change-54441
Trust is a huge issue with the climate movement. All the wild predictions which have failed, the sometimes hysterical refusal to release raw data, the often opaque manipulation of data, the shouting down of criticism rather than engagement, the name calling, the threats – not exactly a trust building exercise.
Then of course there is the bizarre refusal on the part of most greens, to embrace options which might actually reduce CO2, such as nuclear power – which in my opinion raises legitimate concerns, that greens care less about CO2, than they care about their political objectives.
There is also the question of whether increased cooperation is actually a good idea. Cooperation might sound warm and fuzzy, but cooperation can be the opposite of freedom. The more people feel compelled to cooperate, to act in a certain way, the less freedom they have to make their own decisions. It doesn’t matter whether that “cooperation” is enforced by fear of consequences, or through more subtle manipulations, such as messages which promote shame, guilt, and peer pressure – either way, people subject to this kind of manipulation lose some of their freedom. Extreme cooperation is sometimes necessary, when society is imperilled by a threat of military invasion, or other imminent disaster; But history is full of stories of societies whose liberty was overturned, when cooperation went too far, when the people traded freedom for unity.
As the famous author Terry Pratchett once wrote, “Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions.”.
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Mind over matter.
If we do not mind, then it does not matter.
Ha ha Fun on Friday! 😉 THBBFT
How many psychologists does it take to change a light-bulb?…..only one, but the light-bulb has to want to change.
How many psychologists does it take to change the weather?
“As many as can bought to convince us that what we see out the window isn’t real.” ?
Maybe. But weather has a way of breaking the glass and coming in the window. It is to real to be ignored.
We need psychologists who can really change the weather. I want to see them out there shaking their finger at the sky.
Caleb – Can they be holding something metallic when they do it? 🙂
Mind control! Yes, we need Soma. I know, let’s make marijuana compulsory!
Psychologists have no such power over the masses. If they did, they could stop ISIS and Al Qaida by explaining the facts of their peaceful religion to them.
The only purpose of this claim is to discredit skeptics by implying that they are psychologically damaged and in need of help. Skips the facts of the argument quite nicely.
“The only purpose of this claim is to discredit skeptics by implying that they are psychologically damaged and in need of help.”
=============
This must mean that I’m not, right ?
Well, that’s a relief.
The only relevance I can see in this article from The Conversation is related to my Point #7 below:
“7. Adaptation is clearly the best approach to deal with the moderate global warming and cooling experienced in recent centuries.”
For example:
The current Excess Winter Mortality Rate equals about 100,000 deaths per year in the USA, up to 50,000 in the UK and several million worldwide, even in warm climates. These are HUGE numbers; furthermore there is no significant Excess Summer Mortality Rate.
But why is it that northern regions like Scandinavia and Canada have the lowest Excess Winter Mortality Rates? In large part this is because we have adapted to cold weather far better than those living in warmer climates.
Adaptation is the KEY to surviving both global warming and especially global cooling and that depends upon one’s attitude – we Northerners have adjusted our housing and our lifestyles to accommodate cold weather extremes.
A few more thoughts below – climate heresy now, but conventional wisdom in 10 to 20 years.
Best to all, Allan
References:
Cold Weather Kills 20 Times as Many People as Hot Weather
June 13, 2015
By Joseph D’Aleo and Allan MacRae
https://friendsofsciencecalgary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/cold-weather-kills-macrae-daleo-4sept2015-final.pdf
Presentation of Evidence Suggesting Temperature Drives Atmospheric CO2 more than CO2 Drives Temperature
September 4, 2015
By Allan MacRae
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/06/13/presentation-of-evidence-suggesting-temperature-drives-atmospheric-co2-more-than-co2-drives-temperature/
Observations and Conclusions:
1. Temperature, among other factors, drives atmospheric CO2 much more than CO2 drives temperature. The rate of change dCO2/dt is closely correlated with temperature and thus atmospheric CO2 LAGS temperature by ~9 months in the modern data record
2. CO2 also lags temperature by ~~800 years in the ice core record, on a longer time scale.
3. Atmospheric CO2 lags temperature at all measured time scales.
4. CO2 is the feedstock for carbon-based life on Earth, and Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are clearly CO2-deficient. CO2 abatement and sequestration schemes are nonsense.
5. Based on the evidence, Earth’s climate is insensitive to increased atmospheric CO2 – there is no global warming crisis.
6. Recent global warming was natural and irregularly cyclical – the next climate phase following the ~20 year pause will probably be global cooling, starting by ~2020 or sooner.
7. Adaptation is clearly the best approach to deal with the moderate global warming and cooling experienced in recent centuries.
8. Cool and cold weather kills many more people than warm or hot weather, even in warm climates. There are about 100,000 Excess Winter Deaths every year in the USA and about 10,000 in Canada.
9. Green energy schemes have needlessly driven up energy costs, reduced electrical grid reliability and contributed to increased winter mortality, which especially targets the elderly and the poor.
10. Cheap, abundant, reliable energy is the lifeblood of modern society. When misinformed politicians fool with energy systems, real people suffer and die. That is the tragic legacy of false global warming alarmism.
Allan MacRae, Calgary, June 12, 2015
Allan MacRae,
Agree 100% with points 1 – 10, with the possible exception of #6; it’s a prediction, so time will tell. The others are spot on.
dbstealey, Planet Earth, February 26, 2016 ☺
Thank you db.
Regarding my Point #6 above:
I hope to be wrong about global cooling, because humanity suffers greatly in a cooling world. The current Excess Winter Mortality Rate equals about 100,000 deaths per year in the USA, up to 50,000 in the UK and several million worldwide, even in warm climates. There is no significant Excess Summer Mortality Rate.
Challenge Question: When will global cooling start?
In 2002 we wrote that global cooling would start by 2020 to 2030.
We now say global cooling will start before 2020, probably by 2017.
[Definition: The commencement of global cooling is deemed to start when the Lower Tropospheric (LT) temperature anomaly as measured by UAH satellite data starts to decline below the +0.2C anomaly and the trend then declines further.]
http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
Bragging rights to whoever gets it right.
Ladies and germs – faites vos jeux!
Regards to all, Allan
yeah- excess winter deaths in tropical regions is a clue that seasonal variations in mortality are not necessarily driven by temperature, eh?
these numbers are used as talking points and the details of what are the actual causes really matter if the goal is understanding rather than propaganda.
the proximal cause of the mortality indicates, to me, that old folks who are on their last legs tend to croak during major holiday seasons.
pinning the blame on temperature requires a lot of elaboration and unsubstantiated assertions.
Gnomish- I disagree with your hypothesis – read our paper and also the Lancet study referred to therein.
Cold Weather Kills 20 Times as Many People as Hot Weather
June 13, 2015
By Joseph D’Aleo and Allan MacRae
https://friendsofsciencecalgary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/cold-weather-kills-macrae-daleo-4sept2015-final.pdf
DO we really need to add psychobabble to the climate equation? Good grief.
“Psychobabble”? Don’t you mean “Pscichobabble”? The blending of science and language to produce the systematizing of error?
Look at this pendant and repeat after me:
O wa ta doof us I am
O wa ta flim flam scam
Get wida program Sam
O scam I am I am
noaaprogrammer,
Like Mr. Natural pranking Flakey Foont? ☺
(Too much like inside baseball? Sorry…)
i have those, db- and the furry freak bros.
oh wa tagoo…
…Siam
Shouldn’t that be “psiam”?
The real answer is so much easier. People on the right perceive uncertainty while the people on the left perceive certainty. This is why it is a political debate not a scientific debate.
People on the right perceive uncertainty while the people on the left perceive certainty.
======================
Interesting perspective. young adults are certain their parents are wrong. as they mature they begin to suspect otherwise.
” Interesting perspective. young adults are certain their parents are wrong. as they mature they begin to suspect otherwise.”
That statement is not always true. Some parents are totally devoid of rational thought, love or compassion towards their children. Further, the families are totally dysfunctional and can be capricious in nature with the rules changing as the situation warrants for the exclusive benefit of one or both parents. Some see their children as little slaves and not much else. Others either by work or by extension of government largess use them for economic gain. In the US the first child abuse case was tried under cruelty to animals.
Or… “The people that perceive uncertainty are from Missouri (“The Show Me State”) while the people that perceive certainty are from the sheepfolds.”?
To question what is presented, is not a bad trait. To swallow whatever is presented without question, is a bad trait.
Climate change simply put is about radical mass population depopulation while the climate crowd feasts we the unaware face starvation.
Propagander works. Here in Aus we have an epidemic of anxiety amongst our school children that hinders their social and educational development. I’m sure that being told that everything they enjoy is killing the planet and all the wild animals is a contributing factor. Patrick
Now you know why the children are upset.
Also check out the Australian banks that have pledged to fund renewables at UNEP Finance Initiative/UNEPFI website.
http://www.unepfi.org/about/structure/secretariat, and follow the links to the Members list. Includes all countries that have pledged.
A pledge is one thing. Fronting up with the money is another.
Fronting up with the money is another.
==========================
it will be foreign aid funds diverted to climate. Canada will pledge billions to the climate fund. The funds will be given under the stipulation they are used to buy climate services from Canadian firms. Those firms will co-incidentally be the ones that made the largest political contributions during the past election.
The countries receiving the funds will of course deduct a 20-50% administrative fee, which will be deposited in Swiss banks and then moved to untraceable offshore trust funds to the accounts of whichever corrupt despot is current holding the reigns of power in some poorer than dirt 3rd world country.
Patrick, the money has already been part of the Canadian financing of renewables. Have not checked other countries.
Banks, insurance and pension funds are and have been sources of funding for renewables in Canada for several years.
UNEPFI was established at the UN Rio Conference in 1992.
UNEPFI
http://www.unepfi.org/signatories
Australia has several listed.
UNEP, Est.1972, & 40th Anniversary
UNEP Executive Directors Past & Present
Photos & short biographies: http://www.unep.org/40thAnniversary/executivedirectors
UNEP, NGO Accreditation , 212 Groups
Including:
Greenpeace International
Climate Action Network
http://www.unep.org/civil-society/Portals/24105/documents/Accreditation/NGOs-6.11.14%20lz.pdf
As a practicing psychologist I recoiled a bit at “shared identity”, “collective interests”, and the “tragedy of the commons” reference. There is a branch of academic psychology that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Progressive Left and this is their kind of language. These are the people who come up with “micro-aggressions” and other such nonsense.
I will always challenge such as these to spend a week with me in the trenches of some of South Florida’s toughest neighborhoods, and learn what is really oppressing people, and perhaps be amazed at how many do in fact pull themselves out of the cycle of poverty through hard work and effort, something that is apparently anathema to those who believe that such can only be saved by being rescued.
The “Tragedy of the Commons” worldview all but denies agency to individuals who fall under the ‘oppressed’ categories, and this could not be more wrong-headed. Don’t get me wrong, their path is often very difficult, but at the end of that path, those who succeed are far stronger morally, emotionally, and common-sense-wise than many of those who did not have to struggle so hard to achieve personal independence.
>”… Big decisions could be facilitated by many of the psychological processes we have described, that focus on global identity, long-term gain rather than short-term loss, intergroup competition and reputation, rewards, shared norms, providing sufficient and clear information, and instilling trust and transparency.
All top-down stuff: they will decide the reputation, distribute the awards, establish the norms, etc. This is how dependency was created in the first place.
Bottom line: if the boy who cried wolf kept on crying wolf long after the townspeople had given up on him, they’re suggesting that the crowds will come back if they could only find a more knowledgeable communicator to stand there crying wolf instead of the shepherd.
Hey man, I did not see any trigger warnings ahead of your post.
Hows about a little heads-up next time, yo?
Well said, sir. I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone who endeavors to use psychology in an attempt to manipulate and control another is the one who is truly deluded. The greatest use of psychology is to set one free. Without our autonomy we are nothing.
Not just deluded, but sick in the head. Sociopaths.
Desperation…
We’ve reached Peak CAGW, and the Warmunists are becoming painfully aware of it.
and more here (but please grab a bottle of scotch or such before you click)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-gore/the-case-for-optimism-on_b_9321148.html?
I didn’t know Gaia was a plus size model.
Yeah, she’s a little more ample than what I had in mind, but hey, you wouldn’t want an anorexic twiggy model. I think Mother Nature looks more like the Statue of Liberty, but without the spikey crown.
Great cartoon!
Enough Prozac lathered upon the body politic guarantees results in any
form the shrinks desire. AGW? “Take two and call me in the morning”.
The general public don’t believe the climate hysterics’ propaganda because they don’t believe it themselves:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/ship_of_fuels/
This institutionalized nincompoopery is beginning to really wear on my nerves.
“nincompoopery”
Funny!
Our current individual set of beliefs (everyone including the cult of CAGW) concerning ‘climate change’ is dependent on what has been issued in the mass media, what has been stated by bellwether special individuals who we believe are knowledgeable and/or trust worthy, what we personally know about the scientific facts (paleo climatic record, mechanisms, analysis, peer reviewed papers, and so on), and what has happen recently to planetary temperature.
Change the scenario and then try to imagine how people including yourself, view ‘climate change’.
The planet has started to abruptly cool, due to the interruption to the solar cycle.
There is record sea ice both hemispheres and there is record cold temperatures in both winter and summer. There is a significant increase in extreme weather events.
There is public panic as the drop in planetary temperature is impossible based on what has been stated as fact by 97% of the scientific community for the last 20 years.
What would the politicians’ reaction be to an explained significant drop in planetary temperature?
What would the media response be to an explained drop in planetary temperature?
The corollary to the abrupt drop in planetary temperature is the majority of the warming in the last 150 years was due to solar cycle changes rather than the increase in atmospheric CO2 which explains why there was 18 years of no warming at a time when anthropogenic CO2 emissions where maximum and why there are periods of millions of years when atmospheric CO2 is high and the planet is cold and vice versa.
How does the public response to current weather reports which unequivocally support the assertion the entire scientific basis of the IPCC ‘scientific’ reports was incorrect?
The implications is that the scientific community is corrupt or the scientific community is incompetent, and/or the scientific community is susceptible to a weird group think phenomena.
A group will follow the flow, a group will support the politically correct paradigm which has been set in the distance past regardless of the evidence/analysis (new or old) which supports the assertion that the most favored paradigm/theory is incorrect, to keep their jobs and to avoid being labeled a denier.
Now imagine the same above scenario at a time when there is a sever economic crisis which is forcing a painful unpopular (see Argentina current protests for an example of what to expect) cut in government services.
The left no longer have any reason to support spending trillions of dollars on green scams that do not work and regardless the planet is cooling, there is no cooling climate change problem, not a global warming change problem.
Neurotics build castles in the sky. Psychotics live in them. Psychiatrists collect the rent.
I think I’m in stage 2, so what is the rent anyway ?
You can’t afford the rent. Climate scientists have it too expensive to even heat the place.
Going rate appears to be around £10,000 per year for five years, presumably all paid in up front. 🙂
If I recant does it lower the charges ?
I realize recantation can be a slippery slope, but just how far can I sell my soul to avoid any of the monetary charges ?
My grand-children might want to know, too.
Sorry- No Vacancy!
Climate Psychology Alliance. Allergic to cold: Double steel washered polished brass, three per leaf, unscrewed …
Wow, that’s a woman I wanna’ have a good night out on the town with – Not.
Wow .. I couldn’t handle more than 2 minutes. And those were old people she was talking too …. “the intrusion of western culture …. blah blah … violence comes from being outside nature …
She’s a keeper.
For some reason such allegedly educated intelligent people can’t accept that being a human and doing what humans do including the more advanced activities, is actually a perfectly natural and very impressive thing. Like it or not humans rule because the planet’s life systems evolved us to be exactly as we are.
Being at odds with that does not make you smart, nor worth listening to dribble-on such pitiful verbal riffs water melon dopes.
I would like to know how so many people are apparently so ignorant of the weather and history to think that “dramatic climate change” is actually occurring?
One possibility is that they are people who have never actually paid any serious attention to such things, and so can easily tell themselves that everything that happens is truly unusual and dramatic, rather than just more of what has always occurred.
They look so earnest sitting there.
I wonder how they will react if and when they realize they are not the smart people in the room, but rather are the dupes?
They look like an older group. Observationally, I notice that the old may be susceptible to the doom and gloom of an empathetic speaker. Perhaps it taps into the twinkle in the eye that the old feel for the toddlers. Restated, I have no proof, just anecdotal observation.
@knutsea
Which raises the question, where’s her keeper?
She has a talent. I tried to view it again. She has this swarmy skill of emotionally hooking you to her stories of pain then lowers the boom of why it’s so. Somewhere in her life she learned that she could be rewarded for that talent. I probably spent too much time watching it but people are rarely boring.
The skillset reminded me of the same approach many social justice warriors use.
Honesty wins. Manipulation is never honest. Manipulators will never have my respect, much less my trust.
Anybody who actually knows anything about psychology knows that you can’t get somebody to do something they absolutely do not want to do. And, if someone actually feels a compelling need to try and get another to do something they don’t wanna’ do maybe they should delve into psychology, not in a futile effort at underhanded coercion of another, but to understand why they find it necessary to be such a goddam control freak. The idea that life can be peachy creamy if other people would just do what one wants is the height of immaturity. Those who think so should be given the most useful therapeutic advice science can provide: “Grow up.”
Emphasising the concept of global citizenship is a way to defeat the dead ends and false gods of nationalism and racism. The nation-based concept of pointless perpetual war as some kind of ‘stimulus’ for the economy is a sick lie.
The threat from CAGW is the great dependence is has on ignorance, the division of society into us/them factions and the sheltering of information by elites that seek to rule by fiat.
The education of children to think of themselves as the friends of the planet, not its destroyers is imperative. This does not require that they simultaneously be huddled into competing factions defined by the politics of the 1800’s.
Too many people fear that cooperating as a human family is somehow going to inevitably lead to rule by a despotic elite, as if that doesn’t already happen within a single nation state. Unanswerable and corrupt power centres already control nations so ‘nationalism’ is no cure at all. We are all in this together.
Just because some corrupt groups would like to grab control of everything doesn’t mean we have to allow them to do so. As long as such groups are able to organise and operate internationally, national responses will fail to stay their hands. As soon as nation states start to cooperate as one to oppose them, they are de facto operating as a super-state for the mutual benefit of all. A nation state is nothing more than a super-province. Why is the author so afraid of binding international political solutions?
Powerful nation states complaining about how real international cooperation is bad, are usually saying it will undermine some of their veto powers. They fear the democracy of the masses may not align with their hegemonic intentions. They are correct.
Crispin in Waterloo but really in Muminabad,
Exactly right.
BTW, do you have any extra airline miles you aren’t using?…
☺
Hooray for globalism . . it will save us from the globalists ; )
Immaturity and Hypocrisy… When the two biggest face men of the “CO2 is toxic” movement, Obama and Gore, have carbon footprints bigger than most villages and towns world wide it is difficult to believe that they believe their own message. They need Joe Goebels as their cheer leader… and it still won’t work.
With the likes of Lewendowsky and his student J Cook on their team……….
I really don’t see them making much headway.!
It is the way the jihadists dominate their part of the world with a horror society. It is called “brainwashing”. The younger you catch them the more effective. They start from infants.
The lunatics are running the asylum and are determined to make everybody as crazy as they are.
Eugene WR Gallun
Are the beds soft?
The women warm and friendly?
Can I read books?
Is there a garden?
Can I wear different color socks in the summer?
Can my friends all come and get what they want too?
I think what you are seeing is a temper tantrum from childish people.
The social justice meme is
YOU do not possess the value system to understand our vision for the future.
I’ve heard it in person several times. It’s effective because it makes my blood boil. Knocks me off my feet a tad. Takes my power away. I’m not sure why it upsets me so much so I have work to do.
No, it’s all run by Nurse Ratched.