The climate guilt felt by Swedes has fostered an environment for anti-flying movement to thrive. The individual guilt Swedes felt has coalesced toward a uniting force toward a collective movement effort.
The movement to promote rail-only travel in Sweden culminate in Tågsemester.nu – a Facebook group which gives out travel advice and tips for people to make rail-only travel in Sweden. This is part of a collective effort to encourage Swedes to cut back on their plane travel and a way for Swedes to express the pride of travelling by train – tagskyrt.
|
Opting for train-travel instead of air travel may be seen by others as a luxury that only some people can indulge in – to make an ecologically conscious decision. Not every behaviour is easy to perform. However, we can start by nudging people to do the right thing. Providing rail-only travel tips can be a way to help people to alleviate the inherent guilt by getting people to form implementation intentions. Implementation intentions involve people making specific plans about where, when and how they will fulfil a goal. The tips offered can help to reduce the barrier for people to act on their behaviour based on their attitude. One of the founders of social psychology, Kurt Lewin remarked that big social changes can occur by removing small barriers from people’s environment. When a barrier is in place (i.e. little information for people to make rail-only travel behaviour) preventing easy compliance to behaviour, only those with positive attitudes made the effort to circumvent the barrier. Reducing the barrier will help to scaffold the attitude change people experienced from environmental guilt and this increase the probability to alter their behaviour effectively. |
The flyksgam movement has morphed from a reduction in customer demand to introductory signs of no-flying movement. Started by two Swedish mums, the social media initiative, No-fly 2019, aimed to persuade 100,000 people to commit not to take any flights in 2019. Maja Rosen and Lotta Hammar have succeeded in persuading 10,000 people to commit not to take any flight – it is to stop Swedes contribution to greenhouse gases. The campaign is part of their greater effort to show politicians what needs to be done to health climate change.
“It’s also a way to wake people up to say this is serious now, and we have to do something.” – Maja Rosen, 2018
|
The use of social influence strategy is important in influencing other’s behaviour. Providing rail-only travel tips and encouraging Swedes to adopt minimal air-travel plans is a way to get people to agree first to a small request. As time past, Swedes may be more willing to comply to a second, larger request – committing not to fly for a year. This illustrates a social influence strategy get people to comply – foot-in-the-door technique. Eg: Getting people to comply with a smaller request, follow up with a larger request.
When people agree to a request, even a small one – will enable them to see themselves as agreeable people who feel committed to a helpful course of action. To say no to a follow-up request could trigger uncomfortable feelings of inconsistency or cognitive dissonance. This is when two cognitions (beliefs, attitudes) are in conflict or when they behave in ways that are inconsistent with their conception of themselves, people feel a sense of discomfort. |
Click the arrow to go to the next page.
