The People Perspective Sebastian Bamberg University of Applied Science Bielefeld - Germany

1. OPENING PLENARY Keynote Addresses - The Future of Urban Mobility The People Perspective Sebastian Bamberg University of Applied Science Bielefeld - Germany

2. Starting point • In its ‚Green Paper‘ the EU Commission (2007) stresses the need to develop a ‚new culture for urban mobility‘. • However, the Green paper is very vague: • What is ‘new mobility culture’ ? • What strategies / measures might be useful for creating a new mobility culture? • What is culture?

3. What is culture: A Definition • McGrew (1998): Culture as the product of a process: • A new pattern of behavior is invented, or an existing one is modified. • The innovator transmits this pattern to another. • The form of the pattern is consistent within and across performers, perhaps even in terms of recognizable stylistic features. • The one who acquires the pattern retains the ability to perform it long after having acquired it. • The pattern spreads across social units in a population. These social units may be families, clans, troops, or bands. • The pattern endures across generations

4. Culture and social norms • Culture is represented in the stable and shared beliefs of a social group what kind of behaviours are adequate for solving the demands of everyday life. • Social scientific term: SOCIAL NORMS. • Social norms: rules and values/standards that are understood by members of a group, and that guide and/or constrain social behavior without the force of law (Gialdini & Trost, 1998). • Social norms: the elementary ‚grammar of a culture‘; the embodiment of a culture‘s values and collective desires, the common practices that holds a culture together. • Each culture could be characterised by specific social norms, cultures could be differentiated by their social norms.

5. How are social norms learned? • Social norms are learned observationally through modeling: • From observing others one forms an idea what kind of behavior is appropriate for specific goals / situations. • On later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for own action (Bandura)

6. Two types of social norms • Descriptive norms: What is commonly done - what is normal • motivate by providing evidence as to what will likely to be effective and adaptive action • Injunctive norms: What is commonly approved - what is socially sanctioned • motivate action by promising social rewards and punishment for it.

7. OPENING PLENARY Keynote Addresses - The Future of Urban Mobility The People Perspective Sebastian Bamberg University of Applied Science Bielefeld - Germany

8. Preference to conform to social norms (Bichieri, 2006) • Because social norms evolve for regulating social life, people generally know about norms, they expect that social life is regulated by social norms • Most people find social norms reasonable and justified. They find that it is good that there are social norms. • Thus people have a perference to conform and actually conform to the fundamental social norms of their culture / society.

9. Preference to conform to social norms (Bichieri, 2006) • However, they conform only when two conditions are fulfilled: • A sufficient number of others also conform to the rule in the situation (descriptive norm) • A sufficient number of others expect him / her to conform to the rule in the situation (injunctive norm).

10. Preference to conform - empirical evidence • Hundreds of socialpsychological experiments provide stronge evidence for the behavioral impact of social norms • Frequently this impact occures in a automatic fashion without deliverative attention • Gawking (Milgram et al., 1967) • N = 1 (4%) • N = 5 (18%) • N = 15 (40%) - stopping traffic

11. Preference to conform - empirical evidence • Study on increasing towel reuse in hotels (Goldstein et al. 2007) • Non-normative appel: • „HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. You can show your respect for nature and help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay“ • Normative appel: • „JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. 75% of the guests who stay in this room (#xxx) participated in our new resource saving program by using their towels more than once. You can join your fellow guests in this program to help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay“

12. Preference to conform - empirical evidence Study on increasing towel reuse in hotels (Goldstein et al. 2007) 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 49 %

13. Wrap Up • Our inclination to imitate similare others is rooted in basic human dispositions • Social norms are a basic ingredient of each culture • Reasonable individuals unterstand this and prefer to follow norms. • However, they conform only when a sufficient number of others conform to and expect them to conform to a social norm. • Social norms are so powerful, because when activted people used them automatically as behavioral guides.

14. What are the mobility norms in our societies? • Imagine you are a extraterrestrial researcher who is on a hidden expedition to explore the culture of the creatures on the newly discovered planer ‚earth‘. • How would you interprete the following observations made in places where most of these creatures are obviously living?

15. What is the current descriptive mobility norm?

16. What is the current descriptive mobility norm?

17. What is the current injunctive mobility norm?

18. What are the mobility norms in our societies? • You would probably develop the strong hypothesis that the whole culture of that planet is organised around using and worshiping a strange, stinking, self-moving thing on four weels. • Or in social science terms: The culture on planet ‚earth‘ is dominated by strong descriptive as well as injunctive CAR USE NORMS. • There is a lot of evidence that existing descriptive social norm severly limit a person‘s behavioral change intention.

19. Negative effect of 'wrong' descriptive social norms (Thorgersen, 2008) Pro-environmental behaviour Individual change motivation The behavioral impact of personal intention to act in a more pro-environmental way by strong and weak descriptive norms

20. Negative effect of 'wrong' descriptive social norms • Practical implications for campaigning sustainable mobility: • A obvious gap between what a campaign preaches and what people perceive others (especially the rich, successful and powerful) are doing... • severely limits the effectiveness of the campaign.

21. Institutional support - a precondition for creating a new mobility culture • A framework of institutional support is needed for measures designed to promote a new urban mobility culture. • Those in authority (politicians /administration) should be unambiguous in their endorsement of the goals of the implemented policies • Politicians and administration are important social models.

22. A local strategy: ‘Community based social marketing‘ • Social norm focused interventions are combined with a range of other interventions targeting identified behavioural change barriers. • Example: In Motion campaign, Seattle, US www.metrokc.gov.inmotion

23. King County (Washington State) provides regional services to 1.8 million people including the cities Seattle and Bellevue. • King County Metro Transit (KCM) operates approximately 1,300 transit coaches, which serve about 100 million riders every year, has a vanpool fleet with over 700 vans, and a well-integrated bicycle support program. • Much energy and money has been expended on designing improvements to major transportation facilities throughout the region. • However, many of the now existing facilities (sidewalks, bike lanes, buses) were not use so frequenly as expected.

24. A local strategy: ‘Community based social marketing‘ • Consequently, communities with underutilized but adequate transportation infrastructure were prime targets for the IN MOTION program. • IN MOTION utilizes a community-based social marketing approach that is tries to activate community networks for organising and implementing the program • The community itself demonstrates and communicates its members that biking, walking and PT use are ‚good‘, socially supported behaviors which are in the interest of the community.

25. A local strategy: ‘Community based social marketing‘ • The program starts by interviewing community and business leaders to learn • how best to reach into their community, • to understand their concerns and suggestions for the program, • to solicit partners for program implementation. • Aim is to build a partnership with local organizations and businesses. • This allows the program message to be delivered by sources the recipients know, such as a community organization or a local business. • The program should be viewed as a local community action, rather than a abstract concept.

26. A local strategy: ‘Community based social marketing‘ • IN MOTION heavily relies on communicating and prompting social norms. • Community leaders publicly perform the desired behaviour. • Posters at local business sponsors, and displays in local libraries and community centres. • Action posters on utility poles throughout the neighbourhood, • Yard signs displayed by program participants, • Tabling presence at local events or community gathering spaces. • Direct communication with people in the streets. • Reports in local media, web-sides, blogs • Mailing actions.

27. A local strategy: ‘Community based social marketing‘ • The norm activation approach is imbedded in others change facilitating actions ...

28. Let‘s test it! • Social science knows a lot about social norms and how to use them for motivating behavioral change. • However, currently this knowledge is seldom used in practice. • If somebody is interested in developing and practically implementing strategies for creating a new mobility culture ... • ... I would be very happy to participate.

29. OPENING PLENARY Keynote Addresses - The Future of Urban Mobility The People Perspective Sebastian Bamberg University of Applied Science Bielefeld - Germany