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Sustainability and Behaviour Change

Module description

This module provides a comprehensive understanding of sustainability, social change, and behaviour change theories and their real-world application in promoting social and environmentally responsible behaviour and sustainable choices at personal, organizational, community and institutional levels. It covers cutting-edge research in fields such as marketing, economics and psychology that examine the most effective strategies for promoting sustainable behaviour, including promoting ethical consumption and healthy lifestyles. The module utilises the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically responsible consumption, gender equality, and quality education, as a framework for introducing course content.

Module aims - intentions of the module

1. Provide students with a comprehensive understanding of sustainability, social change, and behavioural change theories, and how to apply these theories to real-world situations to promote sustainability and behaviour change at different levels: personal, organizational, community and institutional.
2. Introduce students to cutting-edge empirical research in fields such as marketing, psychology and economics that examine the most effective strategies for promoting sustainable behaviour.
3. Encourage students to take a critical approach and designing effective interventions to promote sustainability and behaviour change in real-world situations.
4. Help students understand the role that behaviour changes play in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Critically discuss and analyse key behaviour change theories and models.
• 2. Apply behavioural change theories and models to real-world sustainable development challenges.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Apply strong problem-solving skills and creative thinking.
• 4. Produce professional and succinct spoken and written presentations of work.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Explore challenges from different perspectives, to creatively offer practical and timely solutions.
• 6. Analyse and evaluate information from a variety of sources to draw independent and well-founded conclusions.

Syllabus plan

1. Introduction to the module
2. Theories of behaviour change
3. Behavioural change interventions
4. Empirical research on behaviour change
5. Sustainable development challenges on campus

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Verplanken, B., & Orbell, S. (2022). Attitudes, Habits, and Behavior Change. Annual Review of Psychology
• Miller, D. T., & Prentice, D. A. (2016). Changing Norms to Change Behavior. Annual Review of Psychology
• Steg, L. (2023). Psychology of Climate Change. Annual Review of Psychology
• Trudel, R. (2018). Sustainable Consumer Behavior. Consumer Psychology Review
• Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2016). Healthy through habit: Interventions for initiating & maintaining health behavior change. Behavioral Science & Policy, 2 (1), 71-83.
• Hershfield, H. E., Shu, S., & Benartzi, S. (2020). Temporal reframing and participation in a savings program: A field experiment. Marketing Science. doi: 10.1287/mksc.2019.1177
• Gerber, A. S., Green, D. P., & Larimer, C. W. (2008). Social pressure and voter turnout: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment. American Political Science Review, 102 (1), 33-48. doi: 10.1017/S000305540808009X
• Eskreis-Winkler, L., Milkman, K. L., Gromet, D. M., & Duckworth, A. L. (2019). A large-scale field experiment shows giving advice improves academic outcomes for the advisor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (30), 14808–14810. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1908779116
• Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2016). Healthy through habit: Interventions for initiating & maintaining health behavior change. Behavioral Science & Policy, 2 (1), 71-83.
• Beshears, J., Milkman, K. L., Lee, H. N., & Mislavsky, R. (2020). Creating Exercise Habits Using Incentives: The Tradeoff between Flexibility and Routinization. Management Science. doi: 10.1287/mnsc.2020.3706

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Milkman, K. (2021). How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.

Key words search

Behaviour change, sustainability, persuasion, communication, marketing communications