Dissecting the Data: The Neuroscience of Nudge Tactics in the Sustainability Transition

7 min readOct 11, 2023

I hosted a panel event on the behavioural science of a just transition at the Sustainable Finance Live 2023 conference yesterday, and have spent the prior weekend nourishing my brain at New Scientist Live where there we many great thought-provoking talks, but some that also quite poignantly related to the topic of behavioural science such as:

· You’ve been played: How gamification has conquered the world — New Scientist Live 2023

· Five times faster: Rethinking the science, economics and diplomacy of climate change — New Scientist Live 2023

· A psychological vaccine against misinformation — New Scientist Live 2023

This fascinating topic bought me back to my Neuroscience roots, in attempt to understand why behavioural change in sustainability may not be happening as fast as we need and what nudge tactics does scientific data encourage for a successful sustainability transition? The WRI state that household behaviours contribute to 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions, so developing effective behavioural change mechanisms can lead to a positive progress toward our sustainability goals.

Why behavioural change in sustainability may not be happening as fast as we need?

The scale of climate change destruction can often leave us feeling powerless to influence change and a recent study Rosales et al (2022) found that the scientific literature suggests two types of psychological distancing that promote this within sustainability. Firstly, future generations that are positioned to be effected by climate change are considered socially distant to us relative to ourselves or those close to us. Secondly, climate change effects are often referred to over decades and this temporal distancing provides the illusion that it matters less as it won’t affect us now. Although, given the phenomenally warm whether we are having in the UK this October, representing 86 days above 1.5 degrees in 2023 relative to the pre-industrial average, might lead us to change that view.

Is data and knowledge enough to promote behavioural change towards sustainability?

As highlighted by Leeuwis et al (2022), most consumers are aware that climate change is growing problem and recognise action is needed but there often appears to be a value- behaviour gap that is driven by contextual factors such as price, product design, and social norms as well as individual factors such as personal and hedonic values, environmental beliefs, and the workload capacity an individual can handle. Because of this conflict of interest, consumers have a hard time identifying the true drivers of their behaviour, as they are either unaware of or unwilling to acknowledge the processes at play. Leeuwis et al, go on to suggest motivating behaviour with reward or punishment will most likely get users engaged in climate change action via brain structures related to the reward system, such as the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and (pre)frontal cortex, where the reward information and subsequent affective responses are encoded. The intensity of the reward experience can be increased when the consumer is consciously considering the action to achieve it. This makes goal-directed behaviour the potential aim of behaviour change interventions.

Can gamification of sustainability action accelerate change?

Evidently, rewarding sustainable behaviour may be one mechanism through which we can accelerate sustainable change, but is it just? Whilst gamification within society and consumerism is evidently growing, others have questioned the impacts this has our mental health and privacy. Adrian Hon, author of ‘You’ve been played: How corporation, Government and schools use games to control us all’ suggests principles to consider when gamifying anything should include: users opting in, keeping rewards and punishments small, not misrepresenting benefits, and should work on behalf of users. Amazon, Uber and others have added games to get employees to pack boxes quicker and be on the road for longer. Whilst this shows some short-term increases in productivity, there are also harmful risks related to burnout and unfair dismissals to consider. So whilst, there is some biological evidence to suggest gamification of sustainable change could provide fruitful results, the wider context and broader unintended consequences need to be considered too.

What nudge tactics does scientific data encourage for a successful sustainability transition?

Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius has been quoted suggesting we are made for each other and the meaning of life comes from service. So with this sympatheia (‘connectedness with the cosmos’) for the common good, would we all not gain fulfilment in the continuation of the human race through proactive sustainable behaviour? Whilst that may be the case, the process to action change is not a simple or quick one. Author of Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests it takes 66 days to form a habit and goes on to describe four laws of behaviour change: 1) Make it obvious, 2) Make it attractive, 3) Make it easy and 4) Make it satisfying.

Similarly, the wealth of neuroplasticity research would also suggest that under the right conditions rewiring of brain can promote changed behaviour. Neuroscientists have estimated that it takes 10,000 repetitions and approximately 3–6months to master a new skill and develop the associated neural pathway. Barabara Frederickson of the University of North Carolina, also suggests people are much more likely to make changes when new behaviours are associated with positive emotions.

Habits emerge because our brains crave efficiency and when a habit if formed, the prefrontal cortex doesn’t need to work as hard engaging in emotional regulation, attention and cognitive decision making. Rosales et al (2022) combined neuroscientific and behavioural methods by assessing interindividual differences in cortical thickness and by using a common-pool resource paradigm with intergenerational contingencies. This enabled them to look for objective, stable, and trait-like neural markers of interindividual differences in consequential intergenerational behaviour. It was found that individuals behaving sustainably (vs. unsustainably) were marked by greater cortical thickness of the dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Given that these brain areas are involved in perspective-taking and self-control and supported by mediation analyses, it was speculated that greater cortical thickness of these brain areas better enable individuals to take the perspective of future generations and to resist temptations to maximize personal benefits that incur costs for future generations.

Additionally, Neuroscientists at MIT demonstrated through a rat maze study whereby the emotional centre (basal ganglia) was manipulated to show that whilst habits can be learned and replaced they can not be removed, hence old habits die hard.

Significant effort is required to change behaviour, so many have turned to nudge tactics — the idea of creating small incremental changes that can push behaviour in the desired direction. Some great studies supporting this approach have been recently reported by the World Resources Institute. For example, the Covid-19 pandemic drastically reduced air travel by almost 66% and bought about a longer term acknowledgement that productivity can be maintained with less travel amongst business leaders. This type of reset event, although rare, can have some long lasting behavioural changes associated.

In another study between Technology Informatics and Design Endeavor (TIDE) and WRI India, a behaviourally designed household energy report study showed participants a comparison of their home’s energy use to that of neighbouring households and also suggested actionable recommendations to bring down energy use and costs. It was found that those receiving the behaviourally designed energy reports decreased energy use by an average of 7%, thus showing that social comparisons or the gamification of sustainability can work on some scales. Technology and AI is well positioned to deliver these recommendation type solutions at scale.

In another study, it was shown that making small changes to menus, such as describing vegetarian dishes with more indulgent terminology, such as ‘hearty’, ‘creamy’ or ‘slow-roasted’ led to a significant increase in diners picking vegetarian meals, which is quite impressive since meat eaters are 56% less likely to order plant-rich dishes.

In this post we have only begun to scratch the surface on this interesting topic and whilst there is a lot more research to explore it is unlikely that one nudge tactic will prove superior than others but rather a combination of nudge tactics will need to be utilised with the right intensity within different contexts for desired results. In the meantime I’m curious to hear what you all think about what the most influential mechanism to nudge us toward a more sustainable future — financial sanctions, financial incentives, small enforced changes rolled out over time, city level gamification of sustainability performance, or something else?