Psychology has taught me that people rarely arrive at their values through logic alone. Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) describes two routes to persuasion: the ‘central route’ whereby we engage deeply with messaging and evidence, and the ‘peripheral route’ where we are swayed not by the arguments messaging but by cues – whether that may be celebrity endorsement or a ‘cute’ mascot.
During my year of study abroad in Hong Kong, I won’t be persuaded into sustainability by statistics alone. I’ll be met by Big Waster and his teammate Greeny plastered across recycling bins and campaigns persuading me to recycle and maintain a green presence during my time abroad through their cute appearance’s. Their deliberately cute and silly designs act as a tool by the government to persuade us to take environmental action. By the ELM’s logic, this is peripheral persuasion acting just as intended, I am not being asked to read a policy paper before I sort my rubbish, but simply being nudged in the right direction by a cartoon mascot with good comic timing. Through low elaboration, habits can form merely from the repeated peripheral exposure, replacing and outlasting any initial negative biases towards environmentalism.
But, peripheral cues are not long lasting and will fade if nothing follows. My year exchange provides the opportunity to build the central route beneath the mascot. As a Psychology student, I want to engage with ‘why’ Hong Kong’s waste-charging scheme provokes such visible public resentment, why recycling succeeds in some housing estates and fails in others, and what exactly allows the gap between intentions and behaviour to be maintained.
In practical application, I intend to limit unavoidable emissions during my stay by relying on Hong Kong’s public transit and octopus card system, opposed to relying solely on private transportation. I’ll eat and shop locally, helping local businesses thrive, whilst also minimising imported, over-package goods that make food waste worse, working in line with Big Waster’s main goals of minimising my waste production, and alongside Greeny by recycling at the source. These habits aligning with the UN Sustainable Development goals: Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, through my food and packaging choices; Goal 13, Climate Action in how I travel; Goal 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities, in integrating with the local system opposed to importing my current lifestyle habit.
What I find most useful about the ELM is what it says about durability. Peripheral persuasion is fast but fragile; whilst central persuasion while slow, sticks. My aim for my year exchange isn’t just to arrive convinced that sustainable travel matters, but to leave having actually elaborated on why so that my habits are maintained even when Big Waster and Greeny are no longer watching.
