From Affect to Action: Psychological Insights for Social Impact Media

From Affect to Action: Psychological Insights for Social Impact Media Beth Karlin, Ph.D. Director, Transformational Media Lab Center for Unconventional Security Affairs University of California, Irvine bkarlin@uci.edu

Transformational Media Lab Transformation - change in form, appearance, nature, or character Individual Community System Media means of communication that reach large numbers of people Industrial Social Lab - Place, situation, or set of conditions conducive to investigation/experimentation

Underlying assumptions 1. Technology & new media are changing how people interact with our natural, built, and social worlds.

Underlying assumptions 1. Technology & new media are changing how people interact with our natural, built, and social worlds. 2. There are potential opportunities to leverage these changes for prosocial / pro-environmental benefit 3. Psychology and the social sciences provide a rich history and theoretical base with which to understand this potential.

What We Do 1. Technology & new media are changing how people interact with our natural, built, and social worlds. 2. There are potential opportunities to leverage these changes for prosocial / pro-environmental benefit 3. Psychology and the social sciences provide a rich history and theoretical base with which to understand this potential. Our lab studies how media is (and can be) used to transform individuals, communities, and systems.

Transformational Media Lab Mission: Our lab studies how media is (and can be) used to transform individuals, communities, and systems. Home Energy Management Film and Social Change

Storytelling We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a similar social change goal. Emily Verellen, 2010 The Fledgling Fund

Storytelling We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a similar social change goal. Food Films - Food Inc - Fresh - Food Fight - Ingredients - Food Matters - Supersize Me - The Future of Food - The Garden - King Corn - What's on your plate? - Deconstructing supper Climate Films - Everything's Cool - An Inconvenient Truth - 11th hour - No Impact Man - Collapse - Radically Simple - Blind Spot Transportation Films - Who Killed the Electric Car? - Revenge of the Electric Car - Fuel - Crude Water Films - Flow - Blue Gold - Tapped - Thirst - Blue Legacy - Story of Bottled Water - Last Call at the Oasis

Storytelling We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a similar social change goal. Within the range of storytelling, some methods truly speak to an audience by sparking real emotions...and others do little more than entertain or inform. Emily Verellen, 2010 The Fledgling Fund

Affect to Action Project Our Goal: Investigate the use of psychological principles in storytelling (film) to better understand how narrative, framing, and editing strategies can impact response. Our Approach: Phase 1: Theory Development Phase 2: Content Analysis Phase 3: Testing Impacts

Methodology 1. Read lots of psychology 2. Watch lots of movies 3. Look for patterns 4. Develop coding sheet

Affect to Action Framework 1. Establish relevance to increase level of involvement 2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity 3. Educate wisely to increase awareness 4. Evoke morals to create an imperative 5. Empower audiences to engage behavior

Establish Relevance Psychological Distance Spatial Temporal Social Hypothetical Information that is HERE and NOW given to ME with HIGH CERTAINTY reduces distance. (Trope & Liberman, 2010)

Establish Relevance First-person narrative Identifiable victim Show impacts on viewer Address the viewer directly Zooming in and out

Elicit Emotion

Elicit Emotion www.cred.columbia.edu

Elicit Emotion Charge your words. Show reactions (faces). Experiment with sound tempo and camera angles/styles

Educate Wisely Presentation of information in a way that encourages certain interpretations & discourages others. There is no value neutral way of presenting people with information. - Elke Weber, APA 2012

Educate Wisely 16% 0% 84% Ariely, D. (2009)

Educate Wisely 16% 68% 0% 84% 32% Ariely, D. (2009)

Educate Wisely

Educate Wisely Make it tangible. Give examples. Frame in terms of losses, rather than gains. Use comparisons wisely. Convey the right social norms.

Five Moral Foundations 1. Harm/Care 2. Fairness/Justice 3. Loyalty/In-group 4. Authority/Hierarchy 5. Purity/Sanctity, 2012

Evoke Morals Five Moral Foundations, Haidt et al.

Evoke Morals Don t be afraid to take a stand and engage moral arguments. Incorporate sanctity and purity into discussion of climate. Use a variety of opinion leaders and authority figures.

Empower Audiences Perceive Appraise Respond Threat appraisal Coping appraisal Rogers, 1983

Protection Motivation Theory High Coping Low Coping High Threat Response Anxiety Low Threat Apathy Indifference Rogers, 1983, 2012

Empower Audiences Threat Appraisal Threat Severity (How bad is it?) Threat Vulnerability (Can it happen to me?) Coping Appraisal Behavioral Efficacy (Can I do something?) Response Efficacy (Will it matter?)

Empower Audiences

Empower Audiences Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready & that what they contribute will be appropriately valued. Henry Jenkins

Empower Audiences What has been done What can be done What are you doing What can the viewer do How do they do it Can they do it with you? Be specific Connect action to outcome Ask people to help

There are benefits to simplicity, 2012

But it s not always that easy, 2012

Thank You! Beth Karlin, Ph.D. Director, Transformational Media Lab Center for Unconventional Security Affairs University of California, Irvine bkarlin@uci.edu