We need societal therapy to overcome our addiction to GDP

This post is by Professor Robert Costanza of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London.

Societies, like individuals, can get trapped in patterns of behaviour, which can be called ‘societal addictions’. These are the actions that provide short term rewards but which turn out to be detrimental and unsustainable in the long run. Examples include our addiction to fossil fuels and the ‘growth at all costs’ economic model.

The need to rapidly deal with climate change is widely accepted in the scientific community, but society still has not done enough to change behaviour to prevent it. In fact, policies enacted following Donald Trump’s recent election will be a major step in the opposite direction: a societal relapse. It may be some time before we can recover and remedy the damage caused. But perhaps we can learn from addiction therapy at the individual level to find new ways to overcome our harmful societal addictions before it is too late.

Confrontation and judgement are counterproductive
It is well known in addiction therapy that it is rarely effective to directly confront addicts about the damage they are causing themselves and others. Rather than motivating them to change, such interventions often result in denial that there is a problem. But a confrontational approach is typically used by scientists and activists who try to effect change at the societal level regarding climate change, overconsumption, overpopulation, inequality, misplaced use of GDP growth as a societal goal and many other issues.

While the dire long term consequences of our societal addictions might be true, simply pointing them out more and more urgently may make change more difficult. From a psychological perspective, lack of progress is to be expected as long as a confrontational and judgmental approach is used. Perhaps more progress would be made with a different way of framing and discussing the issues, more analogous with practices used to help individuals overcome their addictions.

Presenting evidence about risks is important, but how it is presented, and contrasted with values and positive goals, is critical to change behaviour. At the individual level, a technique known as motivational interviewing has been very effective. It engages with addicts in a non-judgmental way to help them develop a positive vision of a better life, based on their deepest values. It often motivates substantial change.

At the societal level, making the transition to a sustainable and desirable future will not be easy, and will require more nuanced conversations and consensus building about societal goals than has so far been the case. One therapy that may help is Community Engaged Scenario Planning which involves planning and envisioning, including public opinion surveys and broad societal dialogue about alternative futures.

The Sustainable Development Goals offer a positive future vision
Perhaps the most important current global process relevant to this is the creation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 global goals were agreed by all UN member states in September 2015. They embody an essential recognition that we live in a finite and interconnected world where we must integrate prosperity, equity and sustainability. They cover poverty, inequality, economy, the environment and more. Taken together, they represent a positive global scenario meant to apply to all countries.

While the goals have been agreed by all UN member states, converting that agreement into a shared vision among the world’s people to drive change will require significant additional work and new approaches, like a version of Community Engaged Scenario Planning.

While, in their present form, the Sustainable Development Goals have been difficult to communicate to the global public, especially in contrast to simple appeals to a return to imagined better times in the past, an engaging description what fully achieving them would look like for the world would be compelling to more people. Global surveys already show people strongly prefer a more equitable and sustainable future. We need to broaden engagement, discussion, and consensus building around the future that we all want, more in the spirit of motivational interviewing.

Implementing this at a societal level can be done through public opinion surveys, dialogues, media events, videos and other approaches. Preliminary results from existing initiatives like this are encouraging, but it is a largely unexplored approach on a grander scale. There is ample room for creative design and testing of a range of ‘societal therapies’. Learning from what works individually may be an important path to more effective ways to achieve the sustainable and desirable future that most of us really want.

Robert Costanza (PhD, FASSA, FRSA) is a professor at the Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London. His transdisciplinary research integrates the study of humans and the rest of nature to address research, policy and management issues at multiple time and space scales, from small watersheds to the global system. His areas of expertise include: ecological economics, ecosystem services, landscape ecology, integrated ecological and socioeconomic modelling, energy and material flow analysis, environmental policy, social traps and addictions, incentive structures and institutions. He is a winner of the 2024 Blue Planet Prize.