Internet notebook about my work: deep listening to facilitate positive change

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Monday 25 February 2013

I'm in love with the forest. I want to protect it.


In inviting others to change behavior, it is useful to share the stories of others who changed: what it took them, how it reinforces their deeper beliefs and what makes them feel good about the change. This is a 4 years old video, in which Muktar tells about his change from being an illegal logger to becoming a ranger.  

Monday 4 February 2013

Cultural values shape public risk perceptions and related policy beliefs.

Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact  to values that define their cultural identities. E.g., whether global warming is a serious threat; whether the death penalty deters murder; whether gun control makes society more safe or less. The Cultural Cognition Project - a group of scholars at Yale Law School - uses methods of various disciplines -- including social psychology, anthropology, communications, and political science -- to chart the impact of this phenomenon and to identify the mechanisms through which it operates. The Project also has an explicit normative objective: to identify processes of democratic decisionmaking by which society can resolve culturally grounded differences in belief in a manner that is both congenial to persons of diverse cultural outlooks and consistent with sound public policymaking.