The Shifting Psychology of Sustainability

During the recent Sustainable Brands 10 conference in Monterey, California a representative sample of 93 sustainable business leaders were assessed using the Roberts Worldview Assessment (RWA), a new psychometric insights tool for marketers and brand innovators. Group data was aggregated and compared with psychological data from RWA assessments of more ‘mainstream’ audiences, and also with data from past conference attendees.  Findings suggest rather powerful worldview trends operating within the minds of today’s business leaders.    

1. Systemic thinking is on the rise

Compared with years past, SB10 participants displayed a marked jump in systemic thinking, with core values that emphasize practical real-world results over emotions and ideology (66^th percentile, nationally).  This trend, if it continues, bodes well for the future of the sustainability movement, as systemic thinking has been shown to be strongly correlated with innovation and collaborative problem solving abilities.   Look for products from creative, systemic brands such Apple and Google to increasingly resonate with the emerging sustainable business leadership (as well as other products and services from brands which capture and embody this same worldview).

2. Intolerance is intolerable

Similar to past years, SB10 participants showed a general distaste for ‘all or nothing’ absolutistic leadership and communication styles—such as those often adopted by FOX News anchor Glenn Beck, former president George W. Bush, and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  To the systemic worldview of today’s sustainable business leaders, such absolutistic communication styles are often seen viewed as shortsighted and counterproductive, at best.  Unfortunately, if they aren’t careful, sustainability leaders run the risk of becoming absolutistic themselves—further alienating mainstream audiences from their vision.  Either way, if present trends continue, expect further ideological polarity between mainstream ‘red’ state consumers and sustainable brand innovators in the coming months.

 3. Optimism is increasing

Despite the difficult economic and environmental challenges that the sustainability movement has continued to face, data shows a slight jump in social optimism from years past among sustainability enthusiasts.  What is driving this shift?  Although no one clear causal explanation can be given, we believe that this trend is being driven primarily by the increases in systemic thinking among sustainability enthusiasts – giving  ‘cause’ related capitalists a more forward thinking ‘visionary’ perspective as compared to values-driven capitalists of the past.  Good news: this social optimism may become a self-reinforcing feedback loop if the sustainable business community continues to gain valuable ‘proof of concept’ brand case studies with mainstream reach. In other words, if today’s emerging business social entreprenuers can garner some new highly visible success stories in the mainstream world, this growing sense of optimism may become a positive, self-fulfilling prophecy which generates momentum on a much larger scale.  

4.  Authenticity is an obsession

As with the past, present data suggests that sustainability enthusiasts are much more likely than mainstream audiences to filter media and interpersonal communications based upon whether the sender’s intentions are uplifting and authentic. Conversely, mainstream audiences are comparatively more likely to look at pragmatic personal self-interest when filtering messages from their environment.  This distinction can be very practical for brand innovators who hope to maximize marketing ROI through strategic communication design.  Along these lines, we also discovered that a person’s level of cynicism is highly correlated with their tendency to filter communications based upon immediate personal self-interest…The big take home?   Anticipate cynicism in mainstream audiences and design your messages to appeal first to their self directed needs and wants.  For sustainability enthusiasts, expect a deeper level of psychological processing, centered largely on truth, authenticity and beauty.

5. Women are leading the pack

Prior research (and popular mainstream lore) has indicated that the systemic worldview, because it is an analytical and expressive problem solving approach, is most common among men in the population at large.  Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Barack Obama – the list of successful high-profile systemic male innovators is long and growing by the day.  Perhaps the most interesting finding of our current data is that women, not men, were the systemic thought leaders among the sustainable business leaders we sampled.   Women displayed a significantly higher level of systemic thinking in relation to leadership and communication preferences (70^th percentile nationally for women, vs. 56^th percentile for men).  Women were also more likely to be socially optimistic and to filter data based upon authenticity than men.  If present trends continue, expect a new generation of highly innovative and effective women business leaders to dramatically shape the face of the sustainability movement in the coming years.   Who knows?  When all is said and done, they may even get proper credit.

Tagged as: marketing, SB10, Sustainability, Sustainable Brands, systems thinking, women