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4 Mins Read
By: Denise Baden, University of Southampton
Many people believe that technology and more renewable energy are all that is needed to solve our environmental problems. However, history has shown us that technology advances and becomes more efficient, which leads to a reduction in the amount of environmental problems we face. Consume more. This has created environmental problems like plastic waste, water pollution, and mining for finite resources.
We need to address cultural values that relate to consumption in order to effectively tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis. This is a crucial aspect of the role models we see on TV and in books.
Role models can be found in famous people, such as Sir David Attenborough’s love of nature and Lord Sugar’s private jet. Fictional role models can influence cultural values in other ways, though they are less obvious but still powerful.
Research into educational entertainment has shown that people become more open to the persuasive messages embedded within stories when they are immersed in them. This is called “The Embedded Story Effect”. Narrative Transportation. It also shows that fictional role models can have cultural impacts both good and bad.
Cognitive science research supports the value of role models in tapping into how our brain processes information. Exemplar theory suggests that role models affect values and behaviours in ways that may be less conscious but more impactful than telling people what to do. Green characters are often portrayed as irritating, odd, or quirkyJust as we need green behavior to be a normal part of our lives, so too should we.
At the same time, many popular TV shows such as And Just Like That…, Riviera and Emily in Paris exemplify role models whose lifestyles of gas-guzzling cars, private jets and fast fashion are destroying our beautiful planet.
Emily in Paris’s title character is American, quirky and funny. She is a luxury marketer and invents innovative ways to get people to purchase the latest fashion. She is a fashionista who wears a different outfit each day. However, it is not clear how she manages to store so many clothes in her small apartment in Paris.
Unsurprisingly, people want to. Dress like her and live like her. But Emily’s is a fictional world.
In the real world, the fashion industry emits twice as many carbon emissions than aviationAnd shipping combinedPesticides in cotton, chemical in dyes, and micro-plastics used in clothes pollute large amounts of water. The fast-fashion trend towards increased garment production and shorter garment usage lives continues unabated.
Emily could get her clothes through fashion swaps Vintage shopsYou can also use her incredible marketing skills to highlight the many benefits of your product. New apps and opportunities to Rent, Borrow, Share or buy second-hand. The writers choose to show us the same old trope: girls shopping, walking home with plastic-coated single-use bags and carrying multiple items of clothing that will only be worn once or twice. She could be written to care about the earth more without sacrificing the beautiful Paris backdrop, sexy chefs, and fun clothes.
Start the conversation
Evidence is mounting that role models who are green can have a positive impact on behaviour. Following the Netflix film Don’t Look Up, 250,000 people pledged positive action via the movie’s Website.
These are only promises, but preliminary results of our Study on readers’ responses to my eco-themed rom-com novel, Habitat ManStudies show that mainstream audiences will be more likely to adopt green solutions in stories. However, this does not mean that the storyline is compromised.
For example, in the garden of the story’s love interest, the main character Tim (aka Habitat Man) shares tips on wildlife gardening while readers watch the romance play out. The discovery of a corpse while digging a pond is both a mystery and an opportunity for us to highlight the many benefits of natural burials.
One participant stated that they had changed their will to have a green funeral after reading Habitat Man. Habitat Man is Highly rated by both green activists and mainstream readers, showing that stories can be both engaging in their own right and inspire sustainable behaviour change.
There are also other initiatives, such the Green Stories writing contestsThese encourage writers to create more sustainable role models. The website suggests Transformative Sustainability SolutionsThese include personal carbon allowances or sharing economies that writers can embed in their stories. This work is being extended into video, in association with Bafta’s Albert initiative, through a Concurrence to create five-minute videos that highlight the impact of fictional role models and calls out those writers and characters that implicitly promote excessive consumption as an aspiration.
I suspect that in ten years when climate change and mounting waste is impossible to ignore, we’ll find the mindless consumption in shows like Emily in Paris jarring. But we don’t have ten years. So let’s call them out now and encourage writers and producers to develop more planet-friendly characters for us to emulate and enjoy.
This article has been republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the Original article.
Lead photo by Netflix
