Sustainable Innovation: Thinking as Behavioral Scientists, Acting as Designers

240 Pages·2022·5.613 MB·English

by  Michele Visciola

Michele Visciola
Sustainable
Innovation
Thinking as Behavioral Scientists,
Acting as Designers
Sustainable Innovation
Michele Visciola
Sustainable Innovation
Thinking as Behavioral Scientists,
Acting as Designers
Michele Visciola
Experientia
Zurich, Switzerland
ISBN 978-3-031-18750-6 ISBN 978-3-031-18751-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18751-3
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To Daphne and future generations who will
have to manage, with creativity and critical
thinking, many of the challenges our
generation was not able to overcome.
Acknowledgments
This book collects many years of my consulting and teaching activity. It is always
nice to think of friends, collaborators, and colleagues who over the years have stim-
ulated reflections, observations, and practices. If I look back at the last 20 years, I
should mention hundreds of people who have marked my action as consultant and
professor. Some colleagues and collaborators are expressly mentioned in my book.
My gratitude goes unconditionally to all those who have collaborated in a stable
way or only in the limited context of some of Experientia’s projects. Their active
and critical participation has been able to guarantee recurring success and full inde-
pendence of thought and interpretation in the different roles played by all of us while
thinking as behavioral scientists and acting as designers. 
vii
Testimonial
Guido Palazzo Professor of Business Ethics at HEC Lausanne,
University of Lausanne.
“The ecological crisis is accelerating, and our societies need to profoundly change.
While in the past, it was often naively assumed that such a change would simply
result from technological innovations, we now understand that the ecological
transition requires a holistic perspective. The success of sustainable innovations
depends on a thorough analysis of the cognitive (both psychological and cultural)
conditions in which they are embedded. Michele Visciola’s book provides the
cognitive toolbox for the design of impactful sustainable innovations.”
Don Norman Distinguished Professor and Founding Director
(Retired) Design Lab, University of California, San Diego USA.
“Michele Visciola’s book provides a deep, informative analysis of the many factors
that go into people’s behavioral and thinking processes.
The book builds upon the work of the numerous scholars who have examined the
issues to provide a coherent summary of the theoretical implications, but then the
narrative goes further to show how the ideas can be put into practice to produce
changes in everyday behavior and thought through sustainable innovation programs.
To help people to change their behavior and thought patterns is one of the most
difficult components of all innovation endeavors. But these are necessary if we are
to move from today’s complex difficulties to produce a more stable, livable, and
sustainable world.
Furthermore, the book shows how behavioral science can improve the activities
and actions of designers, elaborating the idea that design and behavioral sciences
can be better integrated to address innovation challenges.
x Testimonial
The book combines both fluid and enjoyable discussions on innovation and
change in behavior and cultures as well as sections that are deeply packed arguments
and examples to focus on.
Because the book goes deeply into the open advancements of scientific work, the
deep substantive discussions that result require careful study, reflection, and
discussion. Those who spend the necessary effort will be amply rewarded.”
Elizabeth Churchill - Executive Vice President of the Association
of Computing Machinery (ACM); Director of User Experience
at Google.
Key to our future is sustainability. Drawing on the work of many scholars and many
examples from his own experience with research programs over many years,
Michele Visciola showcases how we can change the way we think about the design
of behavioral change to move toward sustainable ecosystemic, sociotechnical
systems.
Rather than focusing on technological solutionism, Visciola shows how we need
to design ecosystems of context-sensitive, collective behavioral change through
thoughtfully designed prevention and intervention programs.
In our thinking, we need to move from classic models of “technological
readiness” to models of “sustainable innovation readiness” at the individual
(cognitive), social (participatory), and cultural (policy) levels.
We need to chart and measure impact from many angles over time and foster
personal and community awareness and engagement for change. From pixels to
policies, an integrated approach to designing behavior change that addresses sus-
tainability is possible.
Contents
Part I A Common Ground for Sustainable and Responsible Innovation
1 Understanding Behavior for Sustainable Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.1 Cognitive Engineering and Emotional Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.2 Cognitive Automatism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3 Dual Processes and Heuristics in Human Judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.4 Availability of Judgment and Action Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.5 Context Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.6 Dependence of the Reference Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.7 Propensity for Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.8 Resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2 The Determinants of Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.1 Cumulative and Additive Effects of Experiences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.2 Elderly Lifestyles and Sustainable Services in Singapore . . . . . . . . 43
2.3 Security Perception and Urban Regeneration in Northern Italy . . . 45
2.4 Access to Cure and the Proximity Ecosystems in China . . . . . . . . . 48
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3 The Fragility of Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Part II Disclosing Value Through Behavioral Design
4 Design Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.1 Design Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2 Dark Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.3 Softly Nudging and Selective Drifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.4 The Inescapability of Design’s Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.5 Descriptive and Prescriptive Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.6 Behavioral Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
xi
xii Contents
5 Intentional Behavioral Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.1 Four Values of Behavioral Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.2 Value Disclosure with Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Part III Shaping Change
6 Change and Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.1 Technological Innovations and Disruptive Technological
Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.2 Visions and Narratives Guide Technological Innovation . . . . . . . . . 121
6.3 Biological Evolution and Cultural Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.4 Cultural Selection Underpins Sustainable Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . 125
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7 Change, Perspective, and Proximity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.1 Spontaneous and Induced Behavioral Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.2 Proximity and Voluntary Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7.3 Proximity in Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7.4 Space Proximity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
7.5 Social and Cultural Proximity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8 Behavioral Change and Heterogeneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.1 Behavior Moderators Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.2 Taxonomy of Moderators and Heterogeneity of Behaviors . . . . . . . 161
8.3 Distributive Effects of Behavior Influence Procedures . . . . . . . . . . 163
8.4 Behavior Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
8.4.1 D ata and Contextualized Behavior Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.4.2 Large-Scale Experimental Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Part IV Accelerating Sustainable Innovation
9 Behavioral Change Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.1 Changing Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
9.2 Taxonomy of Booster Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
9.3 Programs to Accelerate Sustainable Innovation Programs . . . . . . . 193
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
10 Energy Consumption and Sustainable Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
10.1 B ehavioral Change Programs for Efficiency
and Energy Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
10.2 S trategies to Engage Consumers in Behavior
Changing Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203