Under the influence : putting peer pressure to work / Robert H. Frank.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frank, Robert H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social pressure.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (321 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2021.

Summary:

From New York Times bestselling author and economics columnist Robert Frank, bold new ideas for creating environments that promise a brighter futurePsychologists have long understood that social environments profoundly shape our behavior, sometimes for the better, often for the worse. But social influence is a two-way street—our environments are themselves products of our behavior. Under the Influence explains how to unlock the latent power of social context. It reveals how our environments encourage smoking, bullying, tax cheating, sexual predation, problem drinking, and wasteful energy use. We are building bigger houses, driving heavier cars, and engaging in a host of other activities that threaten the planet—mainly because that's what friends and neighbors do.In the wake of the hottest years on record, only robust measures to curb greenhouse gases promise relief from more frequent and intense storms, droughts, flooding, wildfires, and famines. Robert Frank describes how the strongest predictor of our willingness to support climate-friendly policies, install solar panels, or buy an electric car is the number of people we know who have already done so. In the face of stakes that could not be higher, the book explains how we could redirect trillions of dollars annually in support of carbon-free energy sources, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone.Most of us would agree that we need to take responsibility for our own choices, but with more supportive social environments, each of us is more likely to make choices that benefit everyone. Under the Influence shows how.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Preface to the Paperback

PART I. INTRODUCTION

Prologue

1 The Argument in Brief

PART II. THE ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORAL CONTAGION

2 How Context Shapes Perception

3 The Impulse to Conform

PART III. CASES

4 It Was, Until It Wasn’t: The Dynamics of Behavioral Contagion

5 The Sexual Revolution Revisited

6 Trust

7 Smoking, Eating, and Drinking

8 Expenditure Cascades

9 The Climate Crisis

PART IV. POLICY

10 Should Regulators Ignore Behavioral Contagion?

11 Creating More Supportive Environments

12 The Mother of All Cognitive Illusions

13 Ask, Don’t Tell

EPILOGUE

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

A NOTE ON THE TYPE

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-691-23271-7

OCLC:

1277053788