Beth Karlin, Ph.D. Director, Transformational Media Lab

Center for Unconventional Security Affairs University of California, Irvine

bkarlin@uci.edu

From Affect to Action: Psychological Insights for Social Impact Media

Transformation - change in form, appearance, nature, or character

Media – means of communication that reach large numbers of people

Lab - Place, situation, or set of conditions conducive to investigation/experimentation

System

Social

Individual Community

Industrial

Transformational Media Lab

Underlying assumptions 1.  Technology & new media are changing how people interact with our

natural, built, and social worlds.

B. Karlin

Underlying assumptions 1.  Technology & new media are changing how people interact with our

natural, built, and social worlds.

2.  There are potential opportunities to leverage these changes for pro-social / pro-environmental benefit

B. Karlin

Underlying assumptions 1.  Technology & new media are changing how people interact with our

natural, built, and social worlds.

2.  There are potential opportunities to leverage these changes for pro-social / pro-environmental benefit

3.  Psychology and the social sciences provide a rich history and theoretical base with which to understand this potential.

B. Karlin

What We Do 1.  Technology & new media are changing how people interact with our

natural, built, and social worlds.

2.  There are potential opportunities to leverage these changes for pro-social / pro-environmental benefit

3.  Psychology and the social sciences provide a rich history and theoretical base with which to understand this potential.

B. Karlin

Our lab studies how media is (and can be) used to transform individuals, communities, and systems.

Transformational Media Lab Mission:

Our lab studies how media is (and can be) used to transform individuals, communities, and systems.

Film and Social Change

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Home Energy Management

“We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a similar social change goal.

Emily Verellen, 2010

The Fledgling Fund

Storytelling

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“We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a similar social change goal.

Storytelling

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Food Films

- Food Inc

- Fresh

- Food Fight

- Ingredients

- Food Matters

- Supersize Me

- The Future of Food

- The Garden

- King Corn

- What's on your plate?

- Deconstructing supper

Water Films - Flow - Blue Gold - Tapped - Thirst - Blue Legacy - Story of Bottled Water - Last Call at the Oasis

Climate Films - Everything's Cool - An Inconvenient Truth - 11th hour - No Impact Man - Collapse - Radically Simple - Blind Spot

Transportation Films - Who Killed the Electric Car? - Revenge of the Electric Car - Fuel - Crude

“We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a similar social change goal.

Within the range of storytelling, some methods truly speak to an audience by sparking real emotions...and others do little more than entertain or inform.”

Emily Verellen, 2010

The Fledgling Fund

Storytelling

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� Our Goal: Investigate the use of psychological principles in storytelling (film) to better understand how narrative, framing, and editing strategies can impact response.

� Our Approach: � Phase 1: Theory Development � Phase 2: Content Analysis � Phase 3: Testing Impacts

Affect to Action Project

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1.  Read lots of psychology 2.  Watch lots of movies 3.  Look for patterns 4.  Develop coding sheet

Methodology

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Affect to Action Framework 1.   Establish relevance to increase level of involvement

2.   Elicit emotion to create receptivity

3.   Educate wisely to increase awareness

4.   Evoke morals to create an imperative

5.   Empower audiences to engage behavior

B. Karlin

Affect to Action Framework 1.   Establish relevance to increase level of involvement

2.   Elicit emotion to create receptivity

3.   Educate wisely to increase awareness

4.   Evoke morals to create an imperative

5.   Empower audiences to engage behavior

B. Karlin

Psychological Distance

–  Spatial

–  Temporal

–  Social

–  Hypothetical

Information that is HERE and NOW given to ME with HIGH CERTAINTY reduces distance.

(Trope & Liberman, 2010)

Establish Relevance

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�  First-person narrative

�  Identifiable victim

�  Show impacts on viewer

�  Address the viewer directly

�  Zooming in and out

Establish Relevance

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Affect to Action Framework 1.   Establish relevance to increase level of involvement

2.   Elicit emotion to create receptivity

3.   Educate wisely to increase awareness

4.   Evoke morals to create an imperative

5.   Empower audiences to engage behavior

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Elicit Emotion

www.cred.columbia.edu B. Karlin

Elicit Emotion

www.cred.columbia.edu B. Karlin

Elicit Emotion

�  Charge your words.

�  Show reactions (faces).

�  Experiment with sound tempo and camera angles/styles

Elicit Emotion

B. Karlin

Affect to Action Framework 1.   Establish relevance to increase level of involvement

2.   Elicit emotion to create receptivity

3.   Educate wisely to increase awareness

4.   Evoke morals to create an imperative

5.   Empower audiences to engage behavior

B. Karlin, 2012

Educate Wisely

Presentation of information in a way that encourages certain interpretations & discourages others.

“There is no value neutral way of presenting people with information.” - Elke Weber, APA 2012

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Ariely, D. (2009)

16%

0%

84%

Educate Wisely

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Ariely, D. (2009)

16%

0%

84%

68%

32%

Educate Wisely

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Educate Wisely

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�  Make it tangible.

�  Give examples.

�  Frame in terms of losses, rather than gains.

�  Use comparisons wisely.

�  Convey the right social norms.

Educate Wisely

B. Karlin

Affect to Action Framework 1.   Establish relevance to increase level of involvement

2.   Elicit emotion to create receptivity

3.   Educate wisely to increase awareness

4.   Evoke morals to create an imperative

5.   Empower audiences to engage behavior

B. Karlin, 2012

Five Moral Foundations

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1.   Harm/Care

2.   Fairness/Justice

3.   Loyalty/In-group

4.   Authority/Hierarchy

5.   Purity/Sanctity

Evoke Morals

B. Karlin Five Moral Foundations, Haidt et al.

�  Don’t be afraid to take a stand and engage moral arguments.

�  Incorporate sanctity and purity into discussion of climate.

�  Use a variety of opinion leaders and authority figures.

Evoke Morals

B. Karlin

Affect to Action Framework 1.   Establish relevance to increase level of involvement

2.   Elicit emotion to create receptivity

3.   Educate wisely to increase awareness

4.   Evoke morals to create an imperative

5.   Empower audiences to engage behavior

B. Karlin

Perceive Appraise Respond

•  Threat appraisal

•  Coping appraisal

Empower Audiences

B. Karlin Rogers, 1983

High Coping Low Coping

High Threat Response Anxiety

Low Threat Apathy Indifference

Rogers, 1983 B. Karlin, 2012

Protection Motivation Theory

�  Threat Appraisal

� Threat Severity (How bad is it?)

� Threat Vulnerability (Can it happen to me?)

�  Coping Appraisal

� Behavioral Efficacy (Can I do something?)

� Response Efficacy (Will it matter?)

Empower Audiences

B. Karlin

B. Karlin

Empower Audiences

“Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready & that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.”

Henry Jenkins

Empower Audiences

�  What has been done

�  What can be done

�  What are you doing

�  What can the viewer do

�  How do they do it

�  Can they do it with you?

�  Be specific

�  Connect action to outcome

�  Ask people to help

B. Karlin

Empower Audiences

There are benefits to simplicity…

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But it’s not always that easy…

B. Karlin, 2012

Beth Karlin, Ph.D. Director, Transformational Media Lab

Center for Unconventional Security Affairs University of California, Irvine

bkarlin@uci.edu

Thank You!