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winter 2016/2017 + optionswww.iiasa.ac.at 33 In the theoretical model, people who didn’t care about a scarce resource, or about the actions of others, took as much as they wanted. “People would conserve more if they coordinated among themselves and exchanged information,” says Rovenskaya. “If they learned more about consumer behavior and the amount of a resource, it would reduce or even prevent free-riding.” Spreading green innovation Another benefit of exchanging information is that we learn about new products and discover new ways of doing things. Innovation can radically transform our habits. But what causes these behavior changes to go viral? Charlie Wilson, a researcher at IIASA and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the UK, is studying the spread of disruptive innovations through social media, face- to-face communications, and neighborhood interactions. “If they’re adopted, they shake up the way mainstream behavior, practices, or markets function. The classic example is what the microcomputer did to mainframe computing. I’m interested in disruptive innovations that can potentially reduce carbon emissions if they become popular.” Wilson points to things like sharing a car or zipping along on an electric bike or golf cart as examples of disruptive innovations. “I’m interested in measuring the strength of all these different kinds of influences,” says Wilson. “We plan to study this by working with early adopters—people who are already using the technology.” During the four-year study, Wilson and his team will track the social networks of early adopters in Canada, Holland, Ireland, and the UK. Kicking the habit Although old habits can be tough to budge, new research is giving us the tools to pry them loose. By promoting education, we can increase awareness about our environmental footprints and alter behavior for the benefit of society. While giving up something as ingrained as a frequent flying habit may seem impossible, research is raising hope that by exchanging information or spreading innovations, we can turn people off autopilot and onto a more sustainable course. LZ Further info § Chankrajang T & Muttarak R (2017). Green Returns to Education: Does Schooling Contribute to Pro-Environmental Behaviours? Evidence from Thailand. Ecological Economics 131: 434-448. [pure.iiasa.ac.at/13865] § Manzoor T, Rovenskaya E, & Muhammad A (2016). Game-theoretic insights into the role of environmentalism and social-ecological relevance: A cognitive model of resource consumption. Ecological Modelling 340: 74-85. [pure.iiasa.ac.at/13808] § Lutz W & Muttarak R (2017). Forecasting societies’ adaptive capacities through demographic metabolism model. Nature Climate Change 7 (3): 177-184. [pure.iiasa.ac.at/14395] Raya Muttarak muttarak@iiasa.ac.at Elena Rovenskaya rovenska@iiasa.ac.at Charlie Wilson wilsonch@iiasa.ac.at summer ◼ 1