How to Bring About Large-Scale Behavior Change

One of the most confounding challenges facing the sustainability movement is how to bring about a massive shift in human behavior. This master class explores a variety of powerful insights from cognitive science for developing successful social change strategies. You'll learn how meaning arises in the workings of the human brain, why emotions are absolutely vital for engaging people in a process of persistent change, and what the root causes are that have driven societal institutions to the edge of ecological collapse.

Participants will explore the evolutionary origins of morality and discover the psychological foundations of identity that merge values, ideology, and institutions into the powerful stories we collectively live in the modern world. Techniques will be provided to begin using this knowledge to communicate effectively, increase civic engagement, and design better structures for bringing about large-scale behavioral change.

Joe Brewer is a social change strategist who has spent the last decade bringing discoveries from psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and social science to the advocacy world. He is founder and director of Cognitive Policy Works, a consulting firm that develops useful applications from the cognitive sciences for use by practitioners in the governmental, business, and non-profit sectors. Joe is also the project coordinator for Seattle Innovators, a dynamic effort to promote collaboration throughout Puget Sound around the effort to make Seattle the first carbon neutral city in North America.

[read more, and register online: http://sustainableseattle.org/Programs/emergingppi/STARs/classes/2010082... ]

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