REGINA BERNHAUPT: Psychologists have been doing a tremendous amount of work on that. We know a system that uses 12 values – and there can be even more. But that gets much too complicated, so we use four groups. There are the people who always want something new – the latest gadget – and change is important to them. Then people who want to become, in psychological terms, powerful – they want to have a career, to excel. On the other side, we have those who are very conservative and stick to what they’ve done for 20 years. Finally, there are empathetic people who want to support each other. This was a trait we saw gaining small percentages during Covid-19. For sustainability, as an example, we know that the people who care about the latest gadgets don’t care as much about the environment, and people that really prioritise their career don’t worry as much about those issues either. But the people who care for other people, they also care for the environment. For the traditionalists, there is a split. They want to stick to the old traditional way, so are already behaving quite sustainably – they keep the old ways and use devices longer than other groups. We’ve seen people working on farms doing things the same way they did 100 years ago, because it’s better for the land. These people can be convinced of things, but typically are not the ones who like to spend. FEED: What are some of those user values you’ve discovered? And what insights have you gleaned about them?
REGINA BERNHAUPT: I’m working with a PhD student who is investigating a technology that has been around 20 years, but now has a new label – the ‘digital twin’. We can create a representation of user activity, with data from smart watches, fitness trackers or whatever other kinds of sensors are available, including smartphone data, then use that for classification or prediction. Some of the providers we work with not only provide IPTV but also energy. They have access in the home to both data streams. So we can allow people in those areas to see how changing patterns of behaviour can work toward sustainability. FEED: How can these different value types be leveraged to create different outcomes?
“CHANGING PATTERNS OF
BEHAVIOUR CAN WORK TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY”
@feedzinesocial
Powered by FlippingBook