Gratitude as a systems-wide values-based approach to enhance sustainable consumption choices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/28169344.31Keywords:
gratitude, climate change, environment, Robin Kimmerer, Braiding SweetgrassAbstract
What if the best approach to solve climate change were to emphasize an emotion felt by the majority of the population? Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass presents gratitude as a powerful emotion. This article is a deep theoretical exploration of gratitude, largely informed by Indigenous oral histories as presented by Kimmerer. The analysis shows gratitude as having the potential to serve as an emotional (rather than logical) catalyst for change in human consumption behaviours. Also explored is how gratitude can form a cyclical system interwoven with care, gifts, and reciprocity. Environmental activists have been seeking to enact change, largely through a wide-range of education-scoped efforts. Yet change doesn’t happen. This article argues that Indigenous wisdom on the practice and experience of gratitude offers a profoundly more satisfying approach to human relationships; both with nature and other humans. Ultimately gratitude, when more deeply experienced, seems capable of inspiring new programs of actions, education, and efforts to affect highly meaningful and engaging societal transformation towards greater ecological responsibility.
References
Atwood, M. (2010). Oryx and crake (Vol. 1). Vintage Canada.
Bardi, A., & Goodwin, R. (2011). The dual route to value change: Individual processes and cultural moderators. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 42(2), 271-287. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110396916 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110396916
Bencze, L., Pouliot, C. (2017). Battle of the bands: Toxic dust, active citizenship and science education. In: Bencze, L. (eds) Science and technology education promoting wellbeing for individuals, societies and environments. Cultural Studies of Science Education, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55505-8_17 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55505-8_17
Brady, A., & Prentice, G. (2021). Are loot boxes addictive? Analyzing participant’s physiological arousal while opening a loot box. Games and Culture, 16(4), 419-433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412019895359 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412019895359
Deleuze, G. (1992). What is a dispositif. In Armstrong, & Armstrong, T. J. (1992). Michel Foucault, philosopher: Essays.
Dreier, M., Wölfling, K., Duven, E., Giralt, S., Beutel, M. E., & Müller, K. W. (2017). Free-to-play: About addicted whales, at risk dolphins and healthy minnows. Monetarization design and Internet Gaming Disorder. Addictive behaviors, 64, 328-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2016.03.008 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2016.03.008
Goodwin, R., Polek, E., & Bardi, A. (2012). The temporal reciprocity of values and beliefs: a longitudinal study within a major life transition. European Journal of Personality, 26(3), 360–370. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.844 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/per.844
Gneezy, U., Meier, S., & Rey-Biel, P. (2011). When and why incentives (don't) work to modify behavior. Journal of economic perspectives, 25(4), 191-210. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.25.4.191
Hall, K., Gibbie, T., & Lubman, D. I. (2012). Motivational interviewing techniques: Facilitating behaviour change in the general practice setting. Australian family physician, 41(9), 660-667.
hooks, b. (2014). Teaching to transgress. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203700280
Irvine, J. M. (2004). Talk about sex: The battles over sex education in the United States. Univ of California Press.
Kimmerer, R. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed editions.
Manfredo, M. J., Bruskotter, J. T., Teel, T. L., Fulton, D., Schwartz, S. H., Arlinghaus, R., & Sullivan, L. (2017). Why social values cannot be changed for the sake of conservation. Conservation Biology, 31(4), 772-780. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12855 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12855
McDivitt, P. (2016). The information deficit model is dead. Now what? Evaluating new strategies for communicating anthropogenic climate change in the context of contemporary American politics, economy, and culture. ProQuest Dissertations & Publishing.
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2009). Ten things that motivational interviewing is not. Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 37(2), 129-140. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465809005128 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465809005128
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2012). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change. Guilford press.
Moyers, T. B., Rowell, L. N., Manuel, J. K., Ernst, D., & Houck, J. M. (2016). The motivational interviewing treatment integrity code (MITI 4): Rationale, preliminary reliability and validity. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 65, 36-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2016.01.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2016.01.001
Neyman, C. J. (2017). A survey of addictive software design. [Report]. Digital Commons Cal Poly. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cscsp/111
O'neill, S., & Nicholson-Cole, S. (2009). “Fear won't do it” promoting positive engagement with climate change through visual and iconic representations. Science communication, 30(3), 355-379. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547008329201 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547008329201
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. Free press.
Schultz, P. W. 2011. Conservation means behavior. Conservation Biology 25(1). 1080–1083. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01766.x
Schutt, V., Mah E., (2017), Ready for change: Building youth engagement through climate conversations. [Report]. Enviromentum.
Schutt, V. (2019). MI training for environmentalists. Symposium presented for the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers Annual Forum, Tallinn, Estonia.
Søraker, J. H. (2016). Gaming the gamer?–The ethics of exploiting psychological research in video games. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in society. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JICES-02-2015-0003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-02-2015-0003
Szczepaniak, P. (2021). “Instagram face”: Deconstructing the seemingly utopian and idealized image of women promoted by social media. A Journal of Young English Philology Thought and Review, 7, 214.
Wheatley, M. J., & Frieze, D. (2011). Walk out walk on: A learning journey into communities daring to live the future now. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Williams, G. C., Cox, E. M., Kouides, R., & Deci, E. L. (1999). Presenting the facts about smoking to adolescents: Effects of an autonomy-supportive style. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 153(9), 959-964. doi:10.1001/archpedi.153.9.959 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.153.9.959
Wood, A., Joseph, S., & Linley, A. (2007). Gratitude-Parent of all virtues. The Psychologist, 20(1), 18.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Vince Schutt
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), you are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) under the following terms:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
-
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
