Understanding social contagion in environmental policy design and implementation

Abstract

Urban India generates over 1 million MT of solid waste every day, and cities across the country face challenges related to collection and proper disposal. A critical component for the success of any Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) strategy is the role of citizens, their concerns and attitudes, access to information and overall satisfaction of the system. Pro- environmental actions require changes in individuals’ way of living, i.e., they would have to invest time and effort, and sometimes also pay, for adhering to the ever-changing requirements. While government policy is vital to drive improvement in both these factors, the latter is more challenging than the former. Waste generation is an integral part of the economy and a by product of economic activity of businesses, households or the government itself. The management of these by-products has far- reaching implications – for productivity, government expenditure or the environment at large. Policymakers generally employ financial instruments or disincentives based on the assumption that individuals are capable of making optimal choices for themselves. However, in reality, they are seldom rational, often falter at making optimal choices and merely rely on their decisions being either good or satisfactory. In recent times, behavioral science-based interventions are being seen to be more effective without the need for expensive incentives or penalties. Social capital, an increasingly researched concept for understanding the economic returns from networks of social relationships, is now being extended to study its influence on behavior and decision-making in the domain of environment and sustainable practices. Social trust, institutional trust, social networks and compliance with social norms are fundamental principles of social capital formation and sustenance. Such systems between individuals serve as a primary channel for the flow of information and resources facilitating human action. To what extent the knowledge and behaviors spread through these networks is greatly influenced by their structure. ‘Nudging’ is a form of liberty-preserving interventions that hope to steer people voluntarily steer towards a particular direction. In recent years, governments across the world are promoting nudge- based policy strategies as a form of ‘soft-paternalism,’ since they cost relatively less to implement and have immense potential to promote social and environmental goals. While nudging is an effective non-intrusive approach for voluntary behavioral change, it should be transparent and clear to the targeted individuals, rather than keeping it hidden and covert. Social norms could be defined as beliefs and attitudes about whether specific behaviors are approved of by the people important to us. The effectiveness of social norms-based nudging depends on the tipping point of the community. Various researchers have attempted to determine this specific point of adoption post-which there will be a rapid increase in acceptance by the community. ‘Choice Architecture’ is another nudging where the choices available to the individuals are deliberately presented in such a way to influence them towards opting for the one desired by the policymaker. It generally involves changing the characteristics of the physical environment or the context in which a choice or decision has to be made. By making the desired choices of sustainable practices a ‘default rule’, one could disrupt people’s routines and make it more appealing for them to change. Behavioral interventions are generally useful when coupled with prudent economic instruments and supportive laws. Essentially, nudging will complement the existing policy in tackling the social barriers and cognitive biases that obstruct an individual’s ability to be more conscious about the environment.