The Campaign Company specialises in social research and behaviour change. This is your guide to what we’ve been reading. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
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Hello and welcome to the TCC Weekly – the Friday bulletin for people who know their Dear Deidre from their Mystic Meg.
With the US Mid-Terms earlier this week, we look at Trump’s take on what appears to be a multitude of dead cat strategies by Trump. Our Values Lab looks at what changing attitudes to ‘Don’t talk to strangers’ tells us about values, and the Engagement Hub analyses Ross from Friends and trust in the community.
And of course, there’s Charlie’s Attic, the peel of canned laughter which follows each TCC Weekly outing.
David Evans
Director
Trumping lies
Right on the nexus of politics and behavioural psychology, we were fascinated by this recent blog from George Lakoff. With the American Mid-Terms taking place earlier this week, it poses interesting questions about the psychology of detailing with Trump – and particularly of dealing with false accusations or lies.
Lakoff’s theory is that by engaging with Trump’s lies, even to robustly disprove them, journalists and opponents allow him to frame the debate. Outlined previously in his book Don’t Think of an Elephant, this is a fascinating argument, which points towards one of the issues we often come across in our work: those who are trying to change behaviour or attitudes start by seeking to disprove the counter-argument – e.g. by myth-busting. For anyone looking to win hearts and minds, Lakoff’s lesson is an important one to acknowledge.
With Friends like these
You may have seen the twitter story a week or so ago, when Blackpool police put out a picture of a suspect who looked like David Schwimmer – a.k.a. Ross from Friends. Schwimmer duly posted this response in reply. This week Dan Slee sheds a more serious light on the episode, as a positive case study of community engagement (images below from original source). Not only was the offender caught, but trust in the police went upwards.
There is a powerful story, made by Slee, here about the importance of being human when it comes to engagement. But it also shows the increasingly difficulty of planning or drawing up an engagement strategy. Decision-makers are working in a fundamentally new context – created by the internet and mass media – where issues, both positive and negative, can be amplified on a new scale, or come with unpredictable side effects. This both gives to and takes from the traditional comms and engagement roles, and signifies a fundamentally new environment.
The Values Lab is based on the Values Modes segmentation tool – created by Cultural Dynamics and used by TCC– which divides the population into ethics-driven Pioneers, aspirational Prospectors, and threat-wary Settlers. Take the test here to see which you are.
The kindness of strangers
We were fascinated by this recent article about the ‘Don’t talk to strangers’ campaigns for children in the 1970s and 1980s. The article highlights changes in approaches to this issue, with people increasingly uncomfortable with the original message. Action Against Abduction are piloting a new campaign – Clever Never Goes – which seeks to be less socially exclusive and “aims to make children less afraid of the world, by giving them the confidence to make decisions.”
We thought this was a fascinating shift, and one which clearly demonstrates a change in the values of the population. The two heat maps below show the agreement with two statements: one stressing ‘reserved’ values and one stressing ‘universal’ ones. The first statement (“I usually talk to others only when I know them”) chimes with how Settlers see the world. The second (“I want justice for everybody, even people I don’t know”), is very much a Pioneer world view.
Meanwhile, it's worth noting how the proportion of people in each values group has changed over time. The percentage of Settlers has reduced dramatically since 1973, with the proportion of Pioneers doubling in the same period. In this light, we can see where the appetite for the shift in emphasis might have come from, with post-materialist notions of inclusivity and understanding of decision-making replacing the Settler focus on rules and protecting your tribe.
By looking at small changes in emphasis like this we can see how values divides are played out on wider issues – and why there are often tensions around change.
And finally this week, Charlie’s Attic – a seedy affair this week, including sexual fantasies, cannibalism and dead brothel owners:
