When I moved away from being a research biochemist, I found myself exploring and researching about beliefs. What intrigued me was why they were barriers to environmental changes that I perceived should be a no brainer to make for a better world for everyone. In my dissertation I had a large group of undergraduate students answer a long questionnaire about their environmental actions. Based on those responses I was able to place them into 3 broad categories: Non-environmentally minded, environmentally minded, and very environmentally minded. I randomly chose several students from each category and made sure I did not know which category to which they were assigned when I interviewed the volunteers who came to see me. What I found initially confused me. For instance, some of the very environmentally minded did not have any more environmental behaviors than some of those that were in the non-environmental category and vice versa.
As I read broadly into the literature about beliefs it dawned on me that I was looking at people who consistently had two sets of beliefs running simultaneously. There were the instrumental beliefs that we act upon. They are often the ones conditioned into us. And then there were the ‘symbolic beliefs.’ Often the beliefs that they wished they acted upon but had a lot of reasons for not doing so, or things they knew they acted upon that they wish they didn’t have to. Sometimes we have beliefs foisted upon us that we do not truly agree with but go along with anyway to comply with social norms. For example, I hear people say, I am a Christian because I go to Church on Sunday, but the way they live is anything but Christian based – it is a symbolic belief. When I hear people say I am an environmentalist but observe them unconsciously living the consumer lifestyle, I again see symbolic beliefs in action. In further research I found this was more along a continuum (see previous post Richard’s Research on Worldviews and why he is optimistic about a transformation). For instance, I had people say they were environmental because they recycled their drink cans – little extra effort to comply with a social norm and of course a symbolic belief. Yet I also had people who said they were not environmentalists (they were in the non-environmental category) because they did not do enough for the environment besides recycle their drink cans and a few easy things like turn off the lights when not in the room. Things that were easy to do, but created dissonance because consciously they wanted to do more. In this latter group, the beliefs were becoming instrumental but not quite there – they maybe needed more knowledge of things to do or peer pressure made them stay with social consumer norms that restricted their inability to effect changes they wanted, Their beliefs remained symbolic even though they did more than the former group. Instrumental beliefs are the ones you ACT upon, while symbolic beliefs are the ones you do the minimal (if that) so that you satisfy a social norm. Old habits are hard to break. As Julian Sanchez. “The classic case of a ‘symbolic belief’ is what Orwell dubbed “doublethink”: propositions you profess publicly, maybe even sincerely believe you believe.” Yet as psychologist John Cary noted, “the more remote the belief object is [from actual everyday living], the more symbolic the belief.”
To give a good example of this in action, a story from a visit to Holland while I was working on my Sustainable Living textbook. Since Holland had a national sustainability policy I assumed that I would see lots of sustainability beliefs in action. I was taken to Amsterdam for the day by my Dutch friends who lived nearby. Holland I should mention has some of the most progressive environmental and sustainability legislation in the world with committed public involvement. It just so happened that the week before I arrived there was a trash collectors strike and every public trash can was absolutely packed full. Behind every shop and restaurant were a mounting pile of black trash bags awaiting collection at some point. The wind was blowing trash across the city. This puzzled me a little. The family I was with bought some lunch at a family bakery and we carried it away in a plastic bag. As we sat in a park eating, I observed the people around me. The people obviously had a good social ethic to take their trash to a specific receptacle for disposal. I watched curiously as people tried desperately to find a way to put their trash into the packed trash cans, even just sitting them on top of the trash can, or adding trash to the growing pyramidal mound of trash around the trashcan. The idea of carrying the trash home was obviously not an option they considered. I also noticed that most of the trash was ‘fast food’ with its containers. The family I was with simply put all our trash (paper wrapping) into the plastic bag and we carried it around with us for the rest of the day, taking it home to dispose of properly. The simple take-home message is that the Dutch people overall are committed to socially beneficial activities like not littering but did not step up to the next level of commitment when the bins were full. Like most people in the western world they are mostly preoccupied with convenience and image and sustainability is obviously a symbolic belief. Curiously, in a 2015 European report on sustainability, the Dutch were found to be lagging behind the majority of other European countries in sustainability engagement – 26th in ranking out of 28 to be correct, despite their massive governmental commitments otherwise in areas of energy.
It takes a big conscious effort to make a commitment to change your symbolic beliefs to instrumental beliefs My continuing research showed a large group that I called logical idealists (again previous post given above) who wanted the quality of life offered by a sustainability worldview but also wanted the standard of living they enjoyed in the consumer worldview. An interesting contradiction indeed. Much of the problem is that people are addicted to how things are done, yet would change if it were easier to do. Our habits are deeply ingrained through our belief conditioning. Recycling in the USA (and most other places) was much more successful when public trashcans and curbside recycling with specifically labelled trash/recycle bins were introduced – took little effort to separate out trash. Before you get all despondent about change happening, let me point out that great strides forward in sustainability are being made but as yet, we are still in that chaotic frame of behavior with torsion being the impetus to create the change. I really do believe that we are on the threshold of true change to sustainability and it is merely a matter of more people making the commitment – we are approaching critical mass!
Most people want the change but they continue to live unconsciously in auto-pilot consumerism mode. The powers that be want to keep the system as it was for the last 2 centuries – the 0.01% do not want things to change, because if it does, they lose their control and power over us. The belief that we must have a hierarchy controlling us keeps us in line, even though most of us would prefer to be our own bosses working collaboratively with each other. We need leaders but not bosses (something I have talked about a lot in this blog). If you seriously and consciously observe and analyze your beliefs you will realize which beliefs are the ones you want to use and which ones you have outgrown but are still attached to because of peer pressure. Note that peer pressure is merely fear of being belittled and criticized for being different. Self-respect and self-acceptance is the cure.
It can be difficult to stand up for what you believe is a true way to live and to not let other people’s opinions dominate you. Indeed, fear, domination, and competitiveness are the key factors that control so much of humanity through conditioning. Look at your beliefs. What symbolic beliefs do you have that? Do you have any that you dislike (e.g. political doctrines) that control you and hence become instrumental? Do you have some you would love to make instrumental (e.g. sustainable living) but you keep hidden in the shadows. The beliefs you act on are the ones you live by. Who controls your beliefs? – you or your unconscious conditioning? You control beliefs when you bring them out into the open and look at them. For each one: does this belief describe the way you want to live? – Do you live it out of habit or choice? Time to stop waiting for Superman and become your own hero by becoming the real you.
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Seuss. And
‘You probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do!” Olin Miller.
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