tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/social-identity-36667/articlesSocial identity – The Conversation2023-02-23T03:01:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1999842023-02-23T03:01:20Z2023-02-23T03:01:20ZWhy do small rural communities often shun newcomers, even when they need them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511551/original/file-20230221-20-7q3yiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=585%2C6%2C3416%2C2257&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image: Saleena Ham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you remember the time you and your friends started a secret club and didn’t let anyone else join? Well, it’s kind of like that in some small rural communities. Even though these communities really need to attract and keep newcomers, some longstanding residents belong to a special “locals” club. Many newcomers who moved from the cities in recent years would know this all too well.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371656.2022.2061723">My research</a> to understand the experience of newcomers in small towns found a few common themes in what happened to them. It found social identity was a factor that can often inhibit progress, resilience and acceptance of change in rural social groups. </p>
<p>Locals are regarded as the legitimate residents and often have greater local power and privileged status. They can be used to calling the shots for the community. They may hold back change by undermining or failing to accept or support new people, their ideas or businesses.</p>
<p>Newcomers can be intrinsically disruptive to the old and comfortable social norms of small towns. While newcomers want to show their value as residents by offering their new ideas or experience, these are not welcomed by locals because they disrupt the status quo and make them uncomfortable. </p>
<p>I interviewed <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/rj/RJ22023">89 residents and recent residents</a> in two rural Queensland communities with populations under 2,000. The locals often say newcomers or outsiders don’t have a right to have a say about the town and certainly not to make changes. They question their social legitimacy and tell stories of their inferiority as residents. </p>
<p>Even when newcomers manage to make a difference, the locals can ignore, criticise or undermine their achievements.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two horses stand in a paddock in front of homes in a small town" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511546/original/file-20230221-14-wkgv06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=464%2C0%2C3398%2C2268&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511546/original/file-20230221-14-wkgv06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511546/original/file-20230221-14-wkgv06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511546/original/file-20230221-14-wkgv06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511546/original/file-20230221-14-wkgv06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511546/original/file-20230221-14-wkgv06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511546/original/file-20230221-14-wkgv06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People who move to a small town hoping for a quiet life as part of a close-knit community might be in for a shock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image: Saleena Ham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-just-do-it-how-do-e-changers-feel-about-having-left-the-city-now-lockdowns-are-over-188009">'Let's just do it': how do e-changers feel about having left the city now lockdowns are over?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How are newcomers undermined?</h2>
<p>In one town, a newcomer became the leader of a business group. He had experience, was energetic, accessed grants and consulted to develop a plan. But then problem after problem was found with it. It was suggested the whole process begin again. He could not move the business community forward to adopt the plan.</p>
<p>They wore him down. He was burned out by their active and passive resistance. After a couple of years, he ended his community involvement, exactly as the locals expected, because he “was not local”.</p>
<p>In another community, a new catering business opened. The locals thought it was too much like the city, certainly too flash for this little place. They made bookings without turning up, complained to the local council that bylaws were broken, suggested one partner was having an affair, and shared rumours of poor hygiene practice. </p>
<p>The business made social connections with other new businesses and created local events, attracting outsiders. The owners experimented, marketed, found clientele beyond the town and survived, but it was very tough when it did not need to be. </p>
<p>The locals undermine, censure and attack, in overt or subtle ways, newcomers who are seeking to belong and contribute until they become disillusioned or just withdraw. Businesses fail and people leave. The small community stays the same, familiar and declining, and the locals are happy because they were proved right about the newcomers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Main street of a small country town" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511327/original/file-20230221-24-2rbujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511327/original/file-20230221-24-2rbujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511327/original/file-20230221-24-2rbujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511327/original/file-20230221-24-2rbujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511327/original/file-20230221-24-2rbujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511327/original/file-20230221-24-2rbujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511327/original/file-20230221-24-2rbujj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Newcomers can revitalise a small town, but that doesn’t ensure they’ll be made to feel welcome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-young-women-say-no-to-rural-australia-100760">Why young women say no to rural Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why do residents behave like this?</h2>
<p>One reason this happens is because people who live in small communities feel so attached to their community. It is as if it’s an extension of themselves. </p>
<p>So, when someone new comes in and wants to change things, it feels personal. The people who have lived there for a long time read it as a personal attack that threatens their values, stories, history, status and privileges. They feel like they have to defend their story of their special community from the outsiders and anything they might want to introduce. They resist and repel in order to unconsciously protect and defend their place in the secret insiders’ club.</p>
<p>Change can make people feel socially uncertain. Uncertainty about identity can make people feel like they have to act to protect what they know and love: it’s who they are. </p>
<p>It can seem like they’re being senselessly mean and self-sabotaging, but they see it as necessary and justified to protect the familiar qualities and social order of their community or social group. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511547/original/file-20230221-18-2j01er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511547/original/file-20230221-18-2j01er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511547/original/file-20230221-18-2j01er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511547/original/file-20230221-18-2j01er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511547/original/file-20230221-18-2j01er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511547/original/file-20230221-18-2j01er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511547/original/file-20230221-18-2j01er.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many small towns need to attract new residents to prosper, but some existing residents resent changes to their social order.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image: Saleena Ham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-in-lockdown-but-is-moving-to-the-country-right-for-you-148807">It seemed like a good idea in lockdown, but is moving to the country right for you?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why should communities welcome newcomers?</h2>
<p>Newcomers also want to belong. They want friendship, to be themselves, acknowledged and accepted. They want to build community, contribute ideas, initiatives and effort. These things are vital for small communities to survive and stay vibrant.</p>
<p>Fear of social censure for breaking the local social norms <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-02/facebook-regional-admins-say-misinformation-hurting-communities/100460662">flows into many other small town subjects</a>: rejection of new agricultural practices, exclusion of the socially different, opposition to new business, rejection of developing precincts or modernising services. </p>
<p>Rural locals describe themselves as traditionalists, old school, practical. They expect to embrace hardship, inconvenience and loss as their unique identity. They see their group as morally superior to others. </p>
<p>This also makes it hard for people inside the secret club to get help when they struggle with mental health, financial failure, domestic abuse or grief. If they break the identity norms, will they be shamed or mocked? </p>
<p>Stoicism and resilience is integral to the secret club’s membership. Who are you if you can’t hack hardship? Can you still belong?</p>
<p>So, next time you hear about an unfriendly small rural community that undermines change, remember that it might be a social identity issue. They may be acting to protect their special insiders’ status and familiar way of life. </p>
<p>And small community members could remember that welcoming and reaching out to a newcomer or outsider may make all the difference to both that individual’s social success and the future of the community.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/has-covid-really-caused-an-exodus-from-our-cities-in-fact-moving-to-the-regions-is-nothing-new-154724">Has COVID really caused an exodus from our cities? In fact, moving to the regions is nothing new</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Saleena Ham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many small towns badly need to attract new blood to prosper. Yet some residents are so bound up in their community – it’s part of their identity – that they struggle with the changes newcomers bring.Dr Saleena Ham, Adjunct Research Fellow, Rural Sociology, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1977582023-01-29T14:22:07Z2023-01-29T14:22:07ZA study of close to half a million soccer fans shows how group identity shapes behaviour<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505963/original/file-20230123-11-me17cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4056%2C2695&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Argentina fans celebrating their team's World Cup victory walk past a mural of Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires. While shared nationality is a factor, most fans typically think about players in terms of their club team.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mario De Fina)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Dec. 18, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/18/lionel-messi-argentina-france-world-cup-final/">Argentina defeated France</a> after penalties in what some have called the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/football/argentina-france-best-world-cup-final-spt-intl/index.html">greatest World Cup final ever</a>. For one month the attention of soccer fans from Brazil to Morocco was devoted to their national teams as the Seleção Canarinho, Atlas Lions and 30 other teams battled through the tournament in Qatar.</p>
<p>Now fans’ focus is returning to Real Madrid, Chelsea, AC Milan and other clubs, as the major domestic leagues resume matches. Argentina’s hero, Lionel Messi and France’s superstar Kylian Mbappé, rivals on the pitch in Qatar just a few weeks ago, are now back in their familiar roles as teammates at Paris Saint-Germain. </p>
<p>Soccer players compete for a professional club but also hail from different, sometimes rival, countries. This duality provides a natural laboratory to study a question that has preoccupied social scientists for decades: How do our group memberships affect our behaviour? We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26187-x">recently published research</a> from a study on the impact of group identity on behaviour among over 400,000 soccer fans from 35 countries.</p>
<p>We found that national identity leads to more in-group support from fans but team identity has no effect. And that soccer fans offer less support for players who have left the club they support.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of football fans one of whom is waving a Canadian flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505959/original/file-20230123-7706-5w9ly8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canada fans cheer the Canadian soccer team during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Shared national identity can lead to players receiving more support from fans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Us vs. Them</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html">Social Identity Theory</a> holds that group membership provides us with a sense of belonging and raises self-esteem. We tend to categorize people in terms of group memberships, dividing the world into “Us” and “Them.” We often favour individuals belonging to our same social group and discriminate against those in the out-group.</p>
<p>Studying this behaviour is difficult. Experiments offer a way to isolate effects, but laboratory studies are usually highly artificial and experiments set in the real world typically require participants to make decisions based on very little information. These factors limit how far findings can be generalized.</p>
<p>To overcome these challenges, we partnered with a popular soccer app, <a href="https://forzafootball.com">Forza Football</a> to design an experiment studying the role of social identities in decision-making. The experiment was conducted during Forza’s annual poll to determine the world’s best soccer player.</p>
<p>We randomly altered the information users saw on the ballot in the 2018 poll to include either the players’ nationality, their professional club or just their name and photo. Forza users saw one of these three ballots and clicked on the player they thought was best.</p>
<p>The 10 players in the poll played for 10 different clubs and hailed from 10 different countries. After <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/05/26/wild-champions-league-final-sees-bicycle-goal-mo-salah-injured/">a record breaking 2018 season</a>, it was no surprise Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah won the poll.</p>
<h2>Shared nationality a factor</h2>
<p>We also knew users’ favourite clubs as well as their nationality. This allowed us to test how individuals vote when a player was presented as either belonging to their social group or being from an out-group.</p>
<p>For example, when we showed a Belgian Manchester United supporter that <a href="https://www.mancity.com/players/kevin-de-bruyne">Kevin de Bruyne</a> is Belgian, we create a shared identity. But if we show the same person that de Bruyne plays for rival club Manchester City, we create an unshared identity.</p>
<p>We found strong evidence of in-group favouritism based on national identity. Presenting players’ nationalities in addition to their names and photos increased in-group voting by 3.6 per cent compared to when nationality was absent. </p>
<p>On the other hand, providing information about a player’s professional club didn’t change voting behaviour. In other words, a person was more likely to vote for a player who is of the same nationality. While a fan sharing a club with a player had no effect on voting. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two soccer players wearing black and red outfits running on a pitch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505962/original/file-20230123-5967-kd3xaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Belgian soccer player Kevin De Bruyne (left) celebrates with his Manchester City teammate Norwegian Erling Haaland after scoring a goal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jon Super)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, a Portuguese user who saw that Cristiano Ronaldo is Portuguese, for example, was significantly more likely to vote for him than a Portuguese user who saw a ballot with just names and photos.</p>
<p>The disparate effect of shared club and national identity is likely due in part to the prominence of each identity. Soccer fans typically think about players in terms of their club team, not their national team. As a result, our subtle prime was more effective in raising the salience of the national identity than club affiliation.</p>
<p>We also measured how strongly fans identify with their favourite team and their nationality. It turns out, unsurprisingly, the effect of nationality on voting is greatest among individuals for whom that identity is more important.</p>
<h2>Voting for and voting against</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a red soccer outfit kick a football." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505966/original/file-20230123-17-2qx1ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah scores his sixth goal during a Champions League match against Rangers F.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Scott Heppell)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People not only voted for their in-group, they voted against candidates in their out-group. Professional soccer players sometimes change teams in transfers. </p>
<p>This creates a great test of the idea that individuals actively vote against someone they view as an out-group candidate. </p>
<p>For example, in 2017 Mohamed Salah <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2713686-mohamed-salah-liverpool-agree-to-long-term-contract-after-roma-transfer">moved to his current club</a>, Liverpool, from the Italian team AS Roma. This means for Roma supporters, Salah was in the in-group but is now in the out-group.</p>
<p>When presented with a ballot highlighting the fact a former in-group member is now in the out-group (on a different team), users were significantly less likely to vote for the player.</p>
<p>For these fans, providing team information caused a 6.1 per cent decrease in voting for an out-group player. </p>
<h2>Sports matters beyond the field of play</h2>
<p>Recent research by a team of political scientists has indicated star players like Salah <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2019/06/06/mo-salahs-goals-help-to-tackle-islamophobia-in-liverpool?linkId=100000006633012&utm_campaign=Link_Description&utm_content=Social_native_videos&utm_medium=Economist_Films&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Social_Issues">can reduce prejudice</a>. They found Islamophobia declined in the Liverpool area because of Salah’s presence.</p>
<p>But what happens when Salah stops scoring or changes team? Our results suggest sports fans might be quite fickle and that strongly identifying with the in-group is directly related to a backlash effect toward out-groups.</p>
<p>Sports reflect, reveal and shape major social, economic and political values and changes. Sometimes sports is used to bridge or widen ethnic, racial, religious and partisan divides.</p>
<p>For example, researchers have studied racial bias by looking at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/02/25/what-the-nba-can-teach-us-about-eliminating-racial-bias/">foul calls in the NBA</a>, how <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/research/nation-building-through-football-africa-cup">sports success can help unite</a> divided societies and how <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/interfaith-soccer-muslim-christian-tensions-positive-contact">playing sports together</a> can foster co-operation. Our study follows this trend and provides insights from the sports world on how group identity affects behaviour.</p>
<p>The effect of perceiving a shared or unshared group identity is likely small in any particular interaction. But the results of our large-scale study suggest relatively small changes in the prominence of group identities can alter behaviour. This has implications for how ballots are designed, how advertisers target, how social justice campaigns are rolled out and myriad other decision-making scenarios.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Studying how shared identities like nationality and club affiliation impact fan support for soccer players can tell us how our group memberships affect our behaviour.Daniel Rubenson, Professor of Political Science, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityChris Dawes, Associate Professor of Politics, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645992021-08-26T01:47:32Z2021-08-26T01:47:32Z‘Do-gooders’, conservatives and reluctant recyclers: how personal morals can be harnessed for climate action<p>There’s no shortage of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/26/record-shattering-heat-becoming-much-more-likely-says-climate-study">evidence</a> pointing to the need to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2021/jul/26/the-great-barrier-reef-is-a-victim-of-climate-change-but-it-could-be-part-of-the-solution">act urgently</a> on climate change. Most recently, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-the-most-sobering-report-card-yet-on-climate-change-and-earths-future-heres-what-you-need-to-know-165395">confirmed</a> Earth has warmed 1.09°C since pre-industrial times and many changes, such as sea-level rise and glacier melt, cannot be stopped.</p>
<p>Clearly, emissions reduction efforts to date have fallen abysmally short. But why, when the argument in favour of climate action is so compelling? </p>
<p>Decisions about climate change require judging what’s important, and how the world should be now and in future. Therefore, climate change decisions are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-014-1323-9">inherently moral</a>. The rule applies whether the decision is being made by an individual deciding what <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/5/1704S/4596965?login=true">food</a> to eat, or national governments setting <a href="https://ukcop26.org/cop26-goals/">goals</a> at international climate negotiations.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343521000774">research</a> reviewed the most recent literature across the social and behavioural sciences to better understand the moral dimensions of climate decisions. We found some moral values, such as fairness, motivate action. Others, such as economic liberty, stoke inaction. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="graph with arrow leading upwards" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417508/original/file-20210824-26-18xotyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Those who prioritise economic liberty may be less willing to take climate action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Morals as climate motivators</h2>
<p>Our research uncovered a large body of research confirming people’s moral values are connected to their willingness to act on climate change.</p>
<p>Moral values are the yardstick through which we understand things to be right or wrong, good or bad. We develop personal moral values <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/environment-in-the-lives-of-children-and-families">through our families in childhood</a> and our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X18303322?via%3Dihub">social and cultural context</a>. </p>
<p>But which moral values best motivate personal actions? Our research documents <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0163852">a study</a> in the United States, which found the values of compassion and fairness were a strong predictor of someone’s willingness to act on climate change.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://moralfoundations.org">moral foundations theory</a>, the value of compassion relates to humans’ evolution as mammals with attachment systems and an ability to feel and dislike the pain of others. </p>
<p>Fairness relates to the evolutionary process of “<a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-16999-6_3598-1">reciprocal altruism</a>”. This describes a situation whereby an organism acts in a way that temporarily disadvantages itself while benefiting another, based on an expectation that the altruism will be reciprocated at a later time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ordinary-people-extraordinary-change-addressing-the-climate-emergency-through-quiet-activism-160548">Ordinary people, extraordinary change: addressing the climate emergency through 'quiet activism'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494415000201?casa_token=ti54dZZ0c9QAAAAA:oxAvuOGeVK2v30PIuo1Q2fs4jLCusQPT5VqAB8QuSV3MDU5YW7L4wTw8W5qZh2AttDaXRmni4w">a study</a> in Australia found people who put a lower value on fairness, compared to either the maintenance of social order or the right to economic freedom, were more likely to be sceptical about climate change. </p>
<p>People may also use moral “disengagement” to justify, and assuage guilt over, their own climate inaction. In other words, they convince themselves that ethical standards do not apply in a particular context. </p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajsp.12423#:%7E:text=Our%20results%20suggest%20that%20disengagement,reduced%20engagement%20in%20pro%2Denvironmental">longitudinal study</a> of 1,355 Australians showed over time, people who became more morally disengaged became more sceptical about climate change, were less likely to feel responsible and were less likely to act. </p>
<p>Our research found the moral values driving efforts to reduce emissions (mitigation) were different to those driving climate change adaptation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2017.1287624">Research in the United Kingdom</a> showed people emphasised the values of responsibility and respect for authorities, country and nature, when talking about mitigation. When evaluating adaptation options, they emphasised moral values such as protection from harm and fair distribution of economic costs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="people on crowd hold signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417511/original/file-20210824-23-pi9moo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moral reasoning helps shape climate beliefs, including climate scepticism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Framing climate decisions</h2>
<p>How government and private climate decisions are framed and communicated affects who they resonate with, and whether they’re seen as legitimate.</p>
<p>Research suggests climate change could be made morally relevant to more people if official climate decisions appealed to moral values associated with right-wing political leanings.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797612449177">US study</a> found liberals interpreted climate change in moral terms related to harm and care, while conservatives did not. But when researchers reframed pro-environmental messages in terms of moral values that resonated with conservatives, such as defending the purity of nature, differences in the environmental attitudes of both groups narrowed. </p>
<p>Indeed, research shows moral reframing can change pro-environmental behaviours of different <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103116301056?via%3Dihub">political groups</a>, including <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/40/2/350/2911026?login=true">recycling habits</a>. </p>
<p>In the US, people were found to recycle more after the practice was reframed in moral terms that resonated with their political ideology. For conservatives, the messages appealed to their sense of civic duty and respect for authority. For liberals, the messages emphasised recycling as an act of fairness, care and reducing harm to others.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/communicating-climate-change-has-never-been-so-important-and-this-ipcc-report-pulls-no-punches-165252">Communicating climate change has never been so important, and this IPCC report pulls no punches</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="person opens lid of recycling bin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417512/original/file-20210824-19-1cc45cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reframing of messages can help encourage habits such as recycling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>When moralising backfires</h2>
<p>Clearly, morals are central to decision-making about the environment. In some cases, this can extend to people adopting – or being seen to adopt – a social identity with moral associations such as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/22/zero-waste-millennial-bloggers-trash-greenhouse-gas-emissions">zero-wasters</a>”, “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/symb.312">voluntary simplifiers</a>” and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847817303054?via%3Dihub">cyclists</a>. </p>
<p>People may take on these identities overtly, such as by posting about their actions on social media. In other cases, a practice someone adopts, such as cycling to work, can be construed by others as a moral action.</p>
<p>Being seen to hold a social identity based on a set of morals may actually have unintended effects. Research has found so-called “<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02362/full">do-gooders</a>” can be perceived by others as irritating rather than inspiring. They may also trigger feelings of inadequacy in others who, as a self-defense mechanism, might then dismiss the sustainable choices of the “do-gooder”.</p>
<p>For example, sociologists have <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/josi.12366">theorised</a> that some non-vegans avoid eating a more plant-based diet because they don’t want to be associated with the social identity of veganism.</p>
<p>It makes sense, then, that gentle encouragement such as “meat-free Mondays” is likely <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/josi.12366">more effective</a> at reducing meat consumption than encouraging people to “go vegan” and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494421000451">eliminate</a> meat altogether. </p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Personal climate decisions come with a host of moral values and quandaries. Understanding and navigating this moral dimension will be critical in the years ahead.</p>
<p>When making climate-related decisions, governments should consider the moral values of citizens. This can be achieved through procedures like <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0591-9">deliberative democracy</a> and <a href="https://www.climateassembly.uk/">citizen’s forums</a>, in which everyday people are given the chance to discuss and debate the issues, and communicate to government what matters most to them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-the-most-sobering-report-card-yet-on-climate-change-and-earths-future-heres-what-you-need-to-know-165395">This is the most sobering report card yet on climate change and Earth's future. Here’s what you need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Lau is affiliated with WorldFish—an international, not for profit research organization and part of the CGIAR that seeks to deliver research for a more food secure world, particularly for societies most vulnerable women and men. This research was supported by the ARC Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, and the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Song receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Blythe receives funding from the Social Science Research Council (SSHRC).</span></em></p>Understanding the moral dimensions of climate decisions could help promote fairer and more effective climate actionJacqueline Lau, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook UniversityAndrew Song, Lecturer / ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow (DECRA), University of Technology SydneyJessica Blythe, Assistant Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1617132021-06-29T12:06:22Z2021-06-29T12:06:22ZScience denial: Why it happens and 5 things you can do about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408741/original/file-20210628-25-dhlbk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=171%2C171%2C5433%2C3829&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are you open to new ideas and willing to change your mind?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/entrepreneur-with-arms-crossed-at-modern-workplace-royalty-free-image/1210533708">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Science denial became deadly in 2020. Many political leaders <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-failure-of-public-health-messaging-about-covid-19/">failed to support what scientists knew to be effective</a> prevention measures. Over the course of the pandemic, people <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/16/south-dakota-nurse-coronavirus-deniers/">died from COVID-19 still believing it did not exist</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Galileo/Mario-Livio/9781501194740">Science denial is not new</a>, of course. But it is more important than ever to understand why some people deny, doubt or resist scientific explanations – and what can be done to overcome these barriers to accepting science.</p>
<p>In our book “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/science-denial-9780190944681">Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It</a>,” we offer ways for you to understand and combat the problem. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LzHZpAEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">two research</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VBvoFacAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">psychologists</a>, we know that everyone is susceptible to forms of it. Most importantly, we know there are solutions.</p>
<p>Here’s our advice on how to confront five psychological challenges that can lead to science denial.</p>
<h2>Challenge #1: Social identity</h2>
<p>People are social beings and tend to align with those who hold <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0153">similar beliefs and values</a>. Social media <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d43978-021-00019-4">amplify alliances</a>. You’re likely to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/309214/the-filter-bubble-by-eli-pariser/">see more of what you already agree with</a> and fewer alternative points of view. People live in information filter bubbles created by <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/02/08/code-dependent-pros-and-cons-of-the-algorithm-age/">powerful algorithms</a>. When those in your social circle share misinformation, you are more likely to believe it and share it. Misinformation multiplies and science denial grows.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two seated men in discussion" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408706/original/file-20210628-21-1xk8f82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Can you find common ground to connect on?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/W3Jl3jREpDY">LinkedIn Sales Solutions/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Action #1: Each person has multiple social identities. One of us talked with a climate change denier and discovered he was also a grandparent. He opened up when thinking about his grandchildren’s future, and the conversation turned to economic concerns, the root of his denial. Or maybe someone is vaccine-hesitant because so are mothers in her child’s play group, but she is also a caring person, concerned about immunocompromised children.</p>
<p>We have found it effective to listen to others’ concerns and try to find common ground. Someone you <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-015-9312-x">connect with is more persuasive</a> than those with whom you share less in common. When one identity is blocking acceptance of the science, leverage a second identity to make a connection.</p>
<h2>Challenge #2: Mental shortcuts</h2>
<p>Everyone’s busy, and it would be exhausting to be vigilant deep thinkers all the time. You see an article online with a clickbait headline such as “Eat Chocolate and Live Longer” and you share it, because you assume it is true, want it to be or think it is ridiculous. </p>
<p>Action #2: Instead of sharing that article on how GMOs are unhealthy, learn to slow down and monitor the quick, intuitive responses that psychologist <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533557">Daniel Kahneman calls System 1 thinking</a>. Instead turn on the rational, analytical mind of System 2 and ask yourself, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2020.1730181">how do I know this is true</a>? Is it plausible? Why do I think it is true? Then do some fact-checking. Learn to not immediately accept information you already believe, which is called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175">confirmation bias</a>. </p>
<h2>Challenge #3: Beliefs on how and what you know</h2>
<p>Everyone has <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Epistemic-Cognition/Greene-Sandoval-Braten/p/book/9781138013421">ideas about what they think knowledge is</a>, where it comes from and whom to trust. <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315795225-9/epistemic-cognition-psychological-construct-advancements-challenges-barbara-hofer">Some people think dualistically</a>: There’s always a clear right and wrong. But scientists view <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2019.1629805">tentativeness as a hallmark</a> of their discipline. Some people may not understand that scientific claims will change as more evidence is gathered, so they may be distrustful of how public health policy shifted around COVID-19.</p>
<p>Journalists who present “both sides” of settled scientific agreements can unknowingly persuade readers that the science is more uncertain than it actually is, turning <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2003.10.001">balance into bias</a>. Only 57% of Americans surveyed accept that climate change is caused by human activity, compared with <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/17/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/">97% of climate scientists</a>, and only <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/">55% think that scientists are certain that climate change is happening</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man with book looking off into distance" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408752/original/file-20210628-21-19bxio7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How did you come to know what you know?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-reading-book-on-the-table-royalty-free-image/980285120">ridvan_celik/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Action #3: Recognize that other people (or possibly even you) may be operating with misguided beliefs about science. You can help them adopt what philosopher of science <a href="https://leemcintyrebooks.com">Lee McIntyre</a> calls a <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/scientific-attitude">scientific attitude</a>, an openness to seeking new evidence and a willingness to change one’s mind. </p>
<p>Recognize that very few individuals rely on a single authority for knowledge and expertise. Vaccine hesitancy, for example, has been successfully <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/time-doctors-take-center-stage-covid-19-vaccine-push">countered by doctors</a> who persuasively contradict erroneous beliefs, as well as by friends who explain why they <a href="https://addisonindependent.com/joanna-colwell-i-didnt-vaccinate-my-child-and-then-i-did-0">changed their own minds</a>. <a href="https://www.churchleadership.com/leading-ideas/5-ways-churches-can-play-a-critical-role-in-vaccination-efforts/">Clergy can step forward</a>, for example, and some have offered places of worship as vaccination hubs.</p>
<h2>Challenge #4: Motivated reasoning</h2>
<p>You might not think that how you interpret a simple graph could depend on your political views. But when people were asked to look at the same charts depicting either housing costs or the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over time, interpretations differed by political affiliation. Conservatives were more likely than progressives to <a href="https://apadiv15.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/APA-2020-Hockey-Stick-1.pdf">misinterpret the graph</a> when it depicted a rise in CO2 than when it displayed housing costs. When people reason not just by examining facts, but with an unconscious bias to come to a preferred conclusion, <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-is-motivated-reasoning-how-does-it-work-dan-kahan-answers">their reasoning will be flawed</a>.</p>
<p>Action #4: Maybe you think that eating food from genetically modified organisms is harmful to your health, but have you really examined the evidence? Look at articles with both pro and con information, evaluate the source of that information, and be open to the evidence leaning one way or the other. If you give yourself the time to think and reason, you can short-circuit your own motivated reasoning and open your mind to new information.</p>
<h2>Challenge #5: Emotions and attitudes</h2>
<p>When Pluto got <a href="https://theconversation.com/nasa-missions-may-re-elevate-pluto-and-ceres-from-dwarf-planets-to-full-on-planet-status-36081">demoted to a dwarf planet</a>, many children and some adults responded with anger and opposition. Emotions and attitudes are linked. Reactions to hearing that humans influence the climate can range from anger (if you do not believe it) to frustration (if you are concerned you may need to change your lifestyle) to anxiety and hopelessness (if you accept it is happening but think it’s too late to fix things). How you feel about climate mitigation or GMO labeling aligns with whether you are for or against these policies.</p>
<p>Action #5: Recognize the role of emotions in decision-making about science. If you react strongly to a story about stem cells used to develop Parkinson’s treatments, ask yourself if you are overly hopeful because you have a relative in early stages of the disease. Or are you rejecting a possibly lifesaving treatment because of your emotions?</p>
<p>Feelings shouldn’t (and can’t) be put in a box separate from how you think about science. Rather, it’s important to understand and recognize that emotions are <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393709810">fully integrated ways of thinking and learning</a> about science. Ask yourself if your attitude toward a science topic is based on your emotions and, if so, give yourself some time to think and reason as well as feel about the issue. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Everyone can be susceptible to these five psychological challenges that can lead to science denial, doubt and resistance. Being aware of these challenges is the first step toward taking action to meet them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara K. Hofer has received research funding from the National Science Foundation and Vermont EPSCOR. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gale Sinatra has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, Mattel Children's Foundation. </span></em></p>Science denial is not new, but researchers have learned a lot about it. Here’s why it exists, how everyone is susceptible to it in one way or another and steps to take to overcome it.Barbara K. Hofer, Professor of Psychology Emerita, MiddleburyGale Sinatra, Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1488072020-11-23T19:03:31Z2020-11-23T19:03:31ZIt seemed like a good idea in lockdown, but is moving to the country right for you?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366345/original/file-20201029-15-15wj3th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2587%2C1677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea of moving to the country has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-10/post-covid-19-pandemic-simpler-life-migration/12229082">gained momentum</a> through the COVID-19 pandemic. Many workplaces have introduced <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-management-resistance-overcome-working-from-home-may-be-here-to-stay-144850">new policies on working from home</a> that give employees the flexibility needed to make the switch. </p>
<p>Lockdowns have shown many just how cramped and uncomfortable life can be when you cannot escape to the usual activities that get you out of the house. And if everything is closed, what is the point of being in the city and paying a higher rent or mortgage anyway? The Reserve Bank has <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2020/sep/the-rental-market-and-covid-19.html">noted rents have gone down</a> and vacancy rates have gone up in major cities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/regional-australias-time-has-come-planning-for-growth-is-now-vital-149170">Regional Australia's time has come – planning for growth is now vital</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At the same time, some real estate agents have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-15/australians-seek-regional-affordability-house-prices-coronavirus/12242252">noticed an upturn</a> in interest in renting or buying rural and regional properties. The <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/these-are-the-best-performing-property-markets-in-australia-domain-house-price-report-1000315/">demand in some regional areas</a> has pushed up prices by <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/where-regional-australian-house-prices-moved-the-most-domain-house-price-report-1000799/">as much as 30%</a> in the year to October. It seems many are already making the switch to country living.</p>
<p>It sounds idyllic. Escape the rat race, have space to grow veggies and let the kids play outside. You won’t have to commute any more, and you might even be able to buy a house in the country at a time when city prices remain out of reach for many. You could be living the dream.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="aerial image of Hopkins River and Warrnambool" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370489/original/file-20201120-17-tlk6zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The surge of interest in living in coastal towns like Warrnambool in Victoria has already pushed up regional property prices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hopkins-river-warrnambool-town-australia-aerial-1390082903">Greg Brave/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Find a place that matches your values</h2>
<p>So how do you know if this is right for you, or a disaster waiting to happen?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://eprints.usq.edu.au/34713/">my research</a> with people who moved to the country, I found successful moves came down to how closely aligned people’s values were with the attributes of the place they moved to. For example, some people value space and quiet more than bustle and activity. If they found these attributes in their new home, then they were able to craft a new life that was deeply satisfying. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-moving-house-changes-you-109225">How moving house changes you</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When you look through the pages of a glossy magazine such as Country Style, you might find yourself yearning for the lifestyle it depicts – the grassy fields, the peaceful but quirky homes filled with flea-market finds, the home-grown abundance and the happy, contented people. These are long-held and highly regarded values that many hold dear. </p>
<p>The roots of these ideals are deep. Representations of the country as a rural idyll, a place to escape to, are centuries older than our <a href="https://theconversation.com/imagining-your-own-seachange-how-media-inspire-our-great-escapes-105207">current media</a>. </p>
<p>Epicurus (340BC to 270BC) moved from the centre of Athens to the countryside just outside so he could grow vegetables and live simply. Virgil’s (70BC to 19BC) Eclogues emphasised a rural idyll, as did much later painters such as John Constable and Eugene von Guérard. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1845) is an oft-quoted classic about an urban dweller moving to a rural place to live a better life (albeit temporarily in his case).</p>
<p>Early Australian writers such as A.B. “Banjo” Paterson and Henry Lawson took up this nostalgic ideal in the fledgling colony. So did artists such as Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Condor when they travelled to then-rural Heidelberg, now part of Melbourne, to paint the uniquely Australian countryside. </p>
<p>More recently, we have seen Peter Mayle’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Year_in_Provence">A Year in Provence</a> (1991) sketch a romantic picture of city dwellers moving to rural France. And there are popular television series such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Life_(1975_TV_series)">The Good Life</a> (1975-77), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaChange">Seachange</a> (1998-2000, 2019), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Cottage_Australia">River Cottage Australia</a> (2013-16) and most recently <a href="https://tvtonight.com.au/2020/10/escape-from-the-city-reaches-final-episode.html">Escape from the City</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="three women on a rural property" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370486/original/file-20201120-15-bwn27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370486/original/file-20201120-15-bwn27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370486/original/file-20201120-15-bwn27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370486/original/file-20201120-15-bwn27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370486/original/file-20201120-15-bwn27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370486/original/file-20201120-15-bwn27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370486/original/file-20201120-15-bwn27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Escape from the City is explicitly pitched at people who ‘dream of a quieter life’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/escape-from-the-city">ABC iView</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/imagining-your-own-seachange-how-media-inspire-our-great-escapes-105207">Imagining your own SeaChange – how media inspire our great escapes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Beware the gap between depictions and reality</h2>
<p>We know the media are a powerful factor in helping us develop and share our identity and personal narratives. We respond to television shows, books and magazines that we are interested in by becoming their audience. We might share values, goals, ideas or even similar stories with the media we watch. We then, consciously or unconsciously, learn from or adopt those ideas and values in a process of socialisation that shows us how we might live a better life. </p>
<p>Media are only a representation, however. A multitude of factors, not least of which are sales and advertising revenues, go into the process of decision-making as images and stories are crafted for the various outlets. There can be a tendency for media to adopt stereotypes as a shorthand form of communication, but these do not necessarily reflect the reality they purport to depict. </p>
<p>This might seem obvious, but it is all too easy to accept these images as truth when we are inclined towards that viewpoint anyway. </p>
<p>Do you value the things that make a rural place what it is, whether that is peacefulness, an absence of people, vistas of rolling hills, or the community of a small country town? If you do, there’s a good chance a move to the country will enable you to live more closely in line with your values and so be a successful one. </p>
<p>If, on the other hand, you value city-style living, which includes attractions, shops, events and being close to services, you might want to reassess whether a seachange or treechange is right for you. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go-how-city-girls-can-learn-to-feel-at-home-in-the-country-124579">Should I stay or should I go: how 'city girls' can learn to feel at home in the country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Wallis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Don’t just let idyllic representations of life in the country seduce you. Making a successful move depends on ensuring the place you have chosen is a good match for your values and needs.Rachael Wallis, Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1336862020-03-24T18:57:12Z2020-03-24T18:57:12ZOur social identity shapes how we feel about the Adani mine – and it makes the energy wars worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322480/original/file-20200324-155695-sd8gg2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C16%2C5459%2C3684&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dave Hunt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia has the technology to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but the social dynamics remain challenging. The Stop Adani protest convoy during the 2019 federal election campaign brought this difficulty to the fore.</p>
<p>A real sticking point for navigating any social change, including the energy transition, is finding a way through entrenched attitudes in which people see themselves as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378015300182">“us” in conflict with “them”</a>. In these situations, people tend to focus on trying to defeat their opponents rather than finding mutually beneficial solutions to the problem.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629620300694">research</a> just released, I examined media coverage of the Stop Adani protest convoy to better understand these social identity divides. In particular, I analysed the factors shaping who was an “us” and who was a “them” in the conflict.</p>
<p>I found that the media, with the help of politicians, crafted a narrative of division between inner-city “greenies” and Queensland mining communities. These divisions foster a social dynamic that ultimately inhibits co-operation and good policy outcomes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322481/original/file-20200324-155683-uixrqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322481/original/file-20200324-155683-uixrqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322481/original/file-20200324-155683-uixrqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322481/original/file-20200324-155683-uixrqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322481/original/file-20200324-155683-uixrqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322481/original/file-20200324-155683-uixrqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322481/original/file-20200324-155683-uixrqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Debate over Australia’s coal industry is fraught and involves entrenched attitudes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Identity matters</h2>
<p>The Stop Adani convoy took place in April and May 2019. It involved hundreds of protesters travelling by road (in a convoy of vehicles) from Tasmania, through eastern Australian cities to Clermont, the regional Queensland town nearest the site of <a href="https://theconversation.com/interactive-everything-you-need-to-know-about-adani-from-cost-environmental-impact-and-jobs-to-its-possible-future-116901">Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine</a>.</p>
<p>The identity dimension of this protest is important. Australia’s energy transition is inextricably tied to the often fraught politics of climate and energy more broadly, and our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0157-2">social divisions fall along left-right political lines</a>. This means our views on issues such as climate change and energy policy are wrapped up in, and can often be explained by, the groups with which we identify.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coal-mines-can-be-closed-without-destroying-livelihoods-heres-how-124336">Coal mines can be closed without destroying livelihoods – here's how</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So, the energy transition is taking place in an already polarised and challenging space plagued time and time again by the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654418772843">same conflict dynamics</a>. </p>
<p>This conflict often gets in the way of identifying and implementing effective policy solutions. It’s a particular problem for the energy transition, which needs people and sectors working together to support the technical changes. And if society is divided, it is far <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421516302300">less likely</a> to achieve a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-a-fair-energy-transition-look-like-107366">just transition</a>” that limits negative social impacts and promotes social equity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322482/original/file-20200324-155695-ccsie0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322482/original/file-20200324-155695-ccsie0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322482/original/file-20200324-155695-ccsie0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322482/original/file-20200324-155695-ccsie0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322482/original/file-20200324-155695-ccsie0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322482/original/file-20200324-155695-ccsie0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322482/original/file-20200324-155695-ccsie0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Division over the energy transition is hindering a ‘just transition’ for coal workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The role of the media</h2>
<p>The media is a space in which diverse groups of people make sense of something happening outside their day-to-day life. That’s why it’s important to examine how the media depicts contentious issues. I studied representation of the convoy in Australia’s six most popular online news websites. </p>
<p>Media representation of the Stop Adani convoy depicted it as a social conflict between two opposing, hostile sides. One side was characterised as activists, Greens (or “greenies”), conservationists and elites; the other characterised as blue-collar workers, regional Queenslanders and proud mining communities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/adani-is-cleared-to-start-digging-its-coal-mine-six-key-questions-answered-118760">Adani is cleared to start digging its coal mine – six key questions answered</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These identity-based distinctions were cultivated by political figures who provided media commentary on the convoy. The most prominent were those in favour of the Adani mine, such as Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/busybody-politics-is-threatening-democracy-resources-minister-warns-20190806-p52edg.html">criticised the convoy participants</a> as “self-appointed, self-important bureaucrats” who took a “busybody approach”. </p>
<p>Former Greens leader Bob Brown, who led the convoy, said he “respected those who genuinely believed the Adani mine should go ahead” and identified the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/we-come-in-peace-bob-brown-says-as-thousands-march-in-anti-adani-caravan-20190422-p51g7i.html">coal mining industry and governments as the targets</a> of the protest.</p>
<p>My media analysis revealed that to convoy participants, Adani’s proposed mine symbolised the need for climate action and curtailment of Australia’s coal industry. A counter-movement grew stronger in response, comprising community members and supported by <a href="https://www.resourceindustrynetwork.org.au/Portals/13/2019%20Stakeholder%20Report%20Final_LOW%20Res.pdf">the coal industry</a>. To this group, the Adani mine symbolised regional survival and self-determination. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322483/original/file-20200324-155695-1y19087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322483/original/file-20200324-155695-1y19087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322483/original/file-20200324-155695-1y19087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322483/original/file-20200324-155695-1y19087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322483/original/file-20200324-155695-1y19087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322483/original/file-20200324-155695-1y19087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322483/original/file-20200324-155695-1y19087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Convoy leader Bob Brown said the coal industry and governments were the target of the protest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once a debate becomes a “groupish” conflict like this, predictable dynamics in social interactions emerge. This includes hostility and suspicion towards the other side, and <a href="https://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/184">stereotyping which can lead to de-humanisation</a>. </p>
<p>These dynamics emerged during the Stop Adani convoy. There were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-27/adani-carmichael-mine-greens-clermont-convoy-qld/11051390">reports of protesters refused entry to local shops and feeling intimidated by the behaviour of townspeople</a>, including having <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-28/adani-protester-injured-in-clermont/11052940">stones thrown at their cars</a>. Conversely, an anti-Adani protester reportedly likened <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/we-come-in-peace-bob-brown-says-as-thousands-march-in-anti-adani-caravan-20190422-p51g7i.html">Adani supporters to Nazis</a> in a Facebook post. (Bob Brown <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/22/bob-brown-accuses-news-corp-of-disgraceful-coverage-of-stop-adani-convoy">distanced the convoy</a> from the comments, which he said had “no place in civil debate”).</p>
<p>Media reports of these incidents served to fuel a narrative of two opposing groups clashing over a fundamental and unsolvable differences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322485/original/file-20200324-155666-1rfd385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322485/original/file-20200324-155666-1rfd385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322485/original/file-20200324-155666-1rfd385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322485/original/file-20200324-155666-1rfd385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322485/original/file-20200324-155666-1rfd385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322485/original/file-20200324-155666-1rfd385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322485/original/file-20200324-155666-1rfd385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman helps a Stop Adani protester allegedly injured during a confrontation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Newton/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding unity</h2>
<p>There has been much debate about the extent to which the convoy affected the election result in crucial regional Queensland electorates. My study did not address this question.</p>
<p>At its core, my analysis showed that for the “us” that emerged via the convoy, there had to be a “them”. In other words, we form groups based not just on who we are like, but also who we are not like. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coal-miners-and-urban-greenies-have-one-thing-in-common-and-labor-must-use-it-123257">Coal miners and urban greenies have one thing in common, and Labor must use it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But achieving a successful and fair energy transition requires creating a unified “we”, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/bad-news-closing-coal-fired-power-stations-costs-jobs-we-need-to-prepare-113369">not leaving any person or community behind</a>. This means looking after regional communities and people who will feel the first-hand impacts of decarbonising our energy supply.</p>
<p>We must better understand the identity dimension of the energy conflict if we’re design and implement creative and effective solutions. This means more listening, more sharing, and finding common ground.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Colvin has received funding from the Australian Government for work unrelated to the present study.</span></em></p>New research shows how deeply entrenched “us” and “them” attitudes make it much harder to make a fair energy transition.Rebecca Colvin, Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215862019-09-03T12:57:23Z2019-09-03T12:57:23ZBeing vegan says so much more about you than just your ethics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290686/original/file-20190903-175710-1f4f5y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5760%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are you who you eat?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vegan-food-holidays-leisure-people-concept-726733525?src=-1-0">Photographee.eu/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Revered French gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41310631?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">coined the phrase</a>: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are”. He wasn’t wrong. If you’re someone who thinks about your food choices, its probably in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10806-014-9499-6">terms of health or ethics</a>. But they are also intimately connected with <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1G89PgAACAAJ&dq=irving+goffman&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQkYPwlubjAhVTShUIHVSgDlUQ6AEIMDAB">identity</a>, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nVaS6gS9Jz4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=distinction+bourdieu&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBqK61lObjAhXnWxUIHfC2BIAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=distinction%20bourdieu&f=false">class</a>, and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/31/4/868/1812998">ideology</a>. </p>
<p>Kosher and Halal foods are a signal of religious affiliation. Caviar and gold leaf hint at wealth. The enjoyment of wine has as much to do with what it’s served in as its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis">taste</a>.</p>
<p>But what of meat? Due to its <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0276146714526410">cost</a>, meat consumption in Western societies has been linked with higher status, power, wealth and masculinity for <a href="https://books.google.nl/books/about/The_Sexual_Politics_of_Meat_20th_Anniver.html?id=_uK-RFEqfu0C&redir_esc=y">centuries</a>.</p>
<p>In medieval England, peasant diets <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/food-in-medieval-england-9780199273492?cc=us&lang=en&">would be almost wholly vegetarian</a>. Meat was the preserve of royal and aristocratic households, where the hunt became part of male rites of passage, but also <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Masculinity-in-Medieval-Europe-1st-Edition/Hadley/p/book/9780582316454">power over the natural world</a>. This gendered and class-based structuring of access to meat continued well into the second <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203168141">half of the 20th century</a>, since the best cuts were reserved for the patriarch of the family.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290339/original/file-20190830-166005-pjq8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290339/original/file-20190830-166005-pjq8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290339/original/file-20190830-166005-pjq8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290339/original/file-20190830-166005-pjq8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290339/original/file-20190830-166005-pjq8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290339/original/file-20190830-166005-pjq8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290339/original/file-20190830-166005-pjq8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anyone for venison?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Substitutes_for_bread%3B_-_or_-_right_honorables%2C_saving_the_loaves%2C_and_dividing_the_fishes_by_James_Gillray.jpg/1280px-Substitutes_for_bread%3B_-_or_-_right_honorables%2C_saving_the_loaves%2C_and_dividing_the_fishes_by_James_Gillray.jpg">James Gillray/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In many ways, veganism challenges these traditions. Vegans, for instance, are more likely to be <a href="https://www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/news/find-out-how-many-vegans-there-are-great-britain">young and female</a> than old and male. The lifestyle also challenges <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09589236.2017.1287064">traditional</a> norms of masculinity. And instead of the <a href="https://books.google.nl/books/about/The_Sexual_Politics_of_Meat_20th_Anniver.html?id=_uK-RFEqfu0C&redir_esc=y">hedonistic consumption</a> associated with the upper classes, veganism is associated with restraint and discipline.</p>
<p>Yet, this restraint comes with its own social implications. As our new <a href="http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/22209/">research</a> shows, plant-based diets come with burdens – and successfully navigating them can help vegans to promote an image of upward mobility in contemporary consumer society.</p>
<p>We first studied how veganism was represented in more than 2,000 articles in the UK media. Then we conducted 20 in-depth interviews with middle-class consumers who were either vegans or closely acquainted with vegans. We mapped how they perceived veganism, including its relationship to class and character. Analysing data from the interviews and the media together, we identified five key burdens associated with the vegan lifestyle, and the social signals that successfully navigating them sends.</p>
<h2>Vegan burdens</h2>
<p>The first burden relates to knowledge. Vegans generally need to be not only vigilant about ingredients, but able to unpack their meaning for animal welfare, climate change, sustainability, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019566630300045X#aep-section-id9">personal health</a>. The accomplished vegan therefore signals a wealth of knowledge in a society where educational attainment has <a href="https://books.google.nl/books/about/Reproduction_in_Education_Society_and_Cu.html?id=vl0n9_wrrbUC&redir_esc=y">high social value</a>.</p>
<p>Financial wealth is useful too. Vegan products and replacement ingredients are often <a href="https://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/vegan-options-are-more-expensive-than-their-nonvegetarian-counterparts-can-i-afford-to-go-vegan/">expensive</a>, and not within every household’s budget. It is possible to eat vegan cheaply, but doing so costs time for a diet that is already <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666309000373">time-intensive</a> – both in terms of shopping and food preparation. Navigating these demands signals that you have at least a little money – or at least time – to spare, as well as efficiency and time management skills, which are desirable qualities in the world of work.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290332/original/file-20190830-165972-1a1mygg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290332/original/file-20190830-165972-1a1mygg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290332/original/file-20190830-165972-1a1mygg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290332/original/file-20190830-165972-1a1mygg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290332/original/file-20190830-165972-1a1mygg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290332/original/file-20190830-165972-1a1mygg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290332/original/file-20190830-165972-1a1mygg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who am I?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jGs5YQ1Uxas">Allie Smith/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, veganism often requires fortitude and discipline – both to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1464936032000049306">deny oneself short-term hedonistic pleasures</a> in the commitment to ethical principles, and to fend off the typical perception of vegans as troublesome or <a href="https://books.google.nl/books/about/Vegan_Freak.html?id=emL7BgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">challenging guests</a>. Managing these emotional and social burdens signals resilience and goal-seeking behaviour in a <a href="https://books.google.nl/books/about/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class.html?id=WqVq6SDhtjQC&redir_esc=y">competitive environment</a>, and the likely presence of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14742830600807543?needAccess=true">strong social network support</a>.</p>
<h2>Crafting the vegan self</h2>
<p>Consumers are rarely actively pursuing social goals when going vegan. But at a <a href="https://books.google.nl/books/about/Distinction.html?id=nVaS6gS9Jz4C&redir_esc=y">sociological level</a>, it does present opportunities to communicate personal attributes that are considered useful in contemporary society: knowledgeable, disciplined, able to support oneself, but also able to form social connections. Rather than only engaging with food for pleasure, our respondents recognised that the challenges of veganism can be used to signal social status and, if originating from a lower socioeconomic class, an upward trajectory in one’s fortunes.</p>
<p>Of course, the ethical and environmental aspects are still – for many people – the major motivation to be vegan. But as other recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BwKSad9fDe9mhaKWFS85/full">research</a> of ours shows, thanks to recent celebrity uptake of the diet, veganism is no longer a purely moral movement at the periphery of society, but also a desirable lifestyle choice considered trendy in mainstream culture. Indeed, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/beyonce-jay-z-vegan-plant-based-diet-book-marco-borges-greenprint-veganuary-a8707546.html">Beyoncé’s</a> undertaking of a 22-day vegan challenge helped interest in veganism to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BwKSad9fDe9mhaKWFS85/full">explode</a> – despite her wearing leather and fur to a restaurant during the challenge.</p>
<p>The ethos of veganism itself is an admirable and strongly held altruistic conviction among many of its practitioners – but it also plays an important role in curating your personal image. Perhaps Brillat-Savarin’s dictum should now read: “Tell me who you want to be and I will tell you what to eat!”</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1122142">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Following a vegan lifestyle isn’t always easy. Navigating its burdens can signal a new you.Thomas Robinson, Lecturer in Marketing at Cass Business School, City, University of LondonOuti Lundahl, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of GroningenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1121372019-03-07T19:05:27Z2019-03-07T19:05:27ZNew home, new clothes: the old ones no longer fit once you move to the country<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262089/original/file-20190305-48426-124nxz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">City clothes mark the wearer as being out of place in the country.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-woman-walk-on-green-grass-645908878?src=tkw6wz5XcwKCnMiM1kuEmw-1-26">S_oleg/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What happens if you decide to jump in, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006vb2f">Escape to the Country</a>-style, and flee the city rat race?</p>
<p>Well, for a start, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-moving-house-changes-you-109225">your identity begins to change</a> in response to the new place around you. This change happens inside you, but is also reflected in the objects you surround and clothe yourself with. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-moving-house-changes-you-109225">How moving house changes you</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>My recent research looked at the stories of two women who moved from the city to the country and published books about their experiences. Hilary Burden moved from London to rural Tasmania and wrote about it in <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/biography-autobiography/A-Story-of-Seven-Summers-Hilary-Burden-9781742376844">A Story of Seven Summers</a>. Margaret Roach, author of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8218719-and-i-shall-have-some-peace-there">And I Shall Have Some Peace There</a>, moved from New York City to rural upstate New York. The two women tell the story of their moves, but at the same time, they narrate a journey of changing identity that is shared with others through the clothes they wear.</p>
<p>In memoirs such as these, the authors interpret the events they write about, but so does the reader, who brings their own understandings to their imagined experience. This allows readers to imagine a new way of living too, through the pages of the book. Through this, they might <a href="https://theconversation.com/imagining-your-own-seachange-how-media-inspire-our-great-escapes-105207">imagine their own SeaChange</a>. </p>
<h2>Clothes are part of our identity</h2>
<p>When people get dressed each day, they let others know who they are, or who they think they are, in an identity-sharing performance. The clothes the authors discuss in the pages of their memoirs effectively map how their identity changed and how they shared this change with the people around them by wearing different styles of clothes from the ones they wore before. These items combine to produce a narrative that lets others understand those around them more clearly.</p>
<p>Most of the time people are not even aware that they are doing this. They just pick and choose the things they like from the vast array of options open to them. </p>
<p>Sometimes, however, it becomes clear that the clothes that once worked for a person just do not “fit” any more. This can happen in the process of life transformation, including moving from the city to the country the way these women did.</p>
<p>Roach had experienced a long and successful career at Martha Stewart Omnimedia. She knew how to dress for her professional role and had confidence in sharing her wealth and status through the expensive suits she bought. When she moved to the country, however, she could not dress in the same way. With her career behind her, she asked herself: “Who am I if I am not mroach@marthastewart dot com any longer?” </p>
<h2>Unsure, and in pyjamas</h2>
<p>This lack of clarity about her evolving identity is shown in the pyjamas she starts to wear during the day. Far from familiar terrain, and experiencing a state of flux and transition, Roach finds it simpler just to remain in her nightclothes and not have to figure out her new identity via the clothes she wears. Understanding this dilemma, Roach describes how her old way of living no longer fits her new self:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…like the wardrobe hanging in my closet, a vestige of a life left behind, it just doesn’t resemble me any longer.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She talks about how her clothes no longer fit, mentally or visually, with her new life in the country. With real insight, she writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The outside packaging … has to match what’s going on inside of me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This understanding enables her to finally reconcile who she is to where she now lives. Once she negotiates this process, she is able to manage the transition of her clothing and visual identity to what works in her new country home. </p>
<p>Burden’s move across oceans starts a similar journey. She writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I knew I wanted to shed the stuff I associated with cities: suits … dressing up, being very important or busy or loud. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262093/original/file-20190305-48444-1o84fep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Country clothing is both more practical and an expression of identity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/modern-female-farmer-working-chicken-687840004?src=BL5qV6Ld8oDnAtW71P9OpQ-2-96">bernatets photo/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These had once enabled her to present and perform her class identity and status to others, but they no longer suited her work outside at a farmers’ market in rural Tasmania. Her clothes needed to fit the time and place she lived in, but she found they did not. These old clothes end up in garbage bags on a journey to the op shop, and Burden adapts to share her new identity through her clothes.</p>
<p>These memoirs offer a glimpse into lives and identities within the imaginative space they create, permitting identity to be shared through language and text. They show how moving to the country impacts identity, and how these people need to work through this process of change to adapt to their new life and feel comfortable in their new location. </p>
<p>Next time you contemplate moving to the country, just be sure to factor in the cost of a whole new wardrobe!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Wallis received funding for this project from the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship </span></em></p>Your identity changes when you move house and, if that’s to a different community, your clothes change along with you.Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Research Fellow, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1107572019-01-30T13:51:39Z2019-01-30T13:51:39ZWhy Manchester United should make Ole Gunnar Solskjaer manager next season<p>With <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/0/next-manchester-united-manager-latest-odds-man-utd">speculation</a> rife over who will be taking over as manager of <a href="https://www.manutd.com/">Manchester United FC</a> in the coming season, any talk of appointing current caretaker and former player <a href="https://www.manutd.com/en/players-and-staff/detail/OleGunnarSolskjaer">Ole Gunnar Solskjaer</a> is strictly under wraps.</p>
<p>With limited experience in top-flight football, the Norwegian currently in charge of the biggest club in the world has renewed players’ confidence and attacking flair. The turnaround from ex-manager <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/managers/2663/Jos%C3%A9-Mourinho/overview">Jose Mourinho’s</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/18/money-success-jose-mourinho-manchester-united-leadership">dismal performance</a> this season can be explained by what social psychologists call the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dominic_Abrams/publication/226768706_An_Introduction_to_the_Social_Identity_Approach/links/56b4910108ae22962fe5fca9/An-Introduction-to-the-Social-Identity-Approach.pdf">social identity approach</a> – the study of interpersonal relationships and emotional connections within a group.</p>
<p>Solskjaer scored 126 goals for Manchester United between 1996 and 2007 under manager <a href="http://www.sportbible.com/football/news-legends-sir-alex-ferguson-voted-the-greatest-manager-of-all-time-20181020">Alex Ferguson</a>, but he is <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2300834/Champions-League-final-Ole-Gunnar-Solskjaer-on-the-goal-in-1999-which-made-him-a-hero.html">best remembered</a> for coming off the bench to score in the 93rd minute of the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich in Barcelona. His winning goal in the dying seconds of this legendary match gained him the respect and adulation of fans and a place in the club’s history. When he was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46636373">appointed interim manager</a> the day after Mourinho was sacked, Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s history at Manchester United means he lives and breathes the culture here and everyone at the club is delighted to have him back. We are confident he will unite the players and the fans as we head into the second half of the season.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Leading and managing</h2>
<p>The way a manager leads can have major implications for the way a team performs. Once, a leader with “special” qualities, such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223980.1948.9917362?journalCode=vjrl20">superior intelligence and self-confidence</a> (like Mourinho), was likely to be regarded as effective and influential. But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984317302618">current research</a> into effective leadership styles indicate that this is not the case.</p>
<p>It has been established that an emotional bond between manager and players brings trust, respect and increased effort towards attaining team goals. Usually, this relationship is developed over time through shared experiences. Yet Solskjaer has managed to gain this trust, respect and effort with <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/12/22/ole-gunnar-solskjaers-man-utd-five-things-learned-interim-managers/">minimal time</a> to make it happen.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2159676X.2014.936030">Research</a> tells us that successful leaders are able to identify and communicate a clear vision and values to their team, knowing what it means to belong and pushing players towards performance excellence. The atmosphere, values, beliefs, connectedness and spirit of Manchester United were <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/10/fergusons-formula">ingrained</a> by Ferguson’s 26-year stewardship and his subsequent legacy.</p>
<p>So, when his protege took the reigns, understanding the unique qualities that define Manchester United, Solskjaer was more likely to be respected and <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/11618181/jesse-lingard-says-ole-gunnar-solskjaer-has-brought-back-the-manchester-united-way">listened to</a>. In his first few weeks in charge, Solskjaer has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46687815">brought the players together</a> and a return to the relentless squad they are known to be.</p>
<p>As with former United hero <a href="https://www.manutd.com/en/players-and-staff/detail/ryan-gigg">Ryan Giggs’s</a> short interim appointment in 2014, it is not the manager’s own will that can change or create something new, because he is required to adhere to and advance the established culture that already exists at the club. Rather unfairly for a manager who is an outsider, “one of us” (that is, one who knows what it means to be part of Manchester United) will, most of the time, be more favourably regarded than someone from outside of the club’s culture.</p>
<p>Irrespective of context, a manager who has no emotional connections with the team, is more likely to affect players negatively. Players can feel threatened when facing competition if they perceive a lack of emotional connection with their manager, thus reducing the level of drive and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984317302618">performance</a>.</p>
<h2>Stress and performance</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984317302618">Recent research</a> has identified that a leader with whom a person feels an emotional connection (as a result of shared values and vision) can have an effect on levels of stress and performance. Stress is not inherently bad. When players feel they can cope with the demands of a situation, the resultant stress is likely to be helpful in terms of driving performance. This is known as a “<a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/jsep.35.4.387">challenge state</a>”, which is beneficial for health and performance.</p>
<p>Conversely, feeling unable to cope with the demands of the situation is likely to be detrimental to health and performance, and is known as a “<a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/jsep.35.4.387">threat state</a>”. I do not use stress in its common usage, to mean fatigue and overload, where a lot is bad, and little is good. Stress can be both helpful and unhelpful.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SJBONZ-xHaE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The benefits of a challenge state are derived from the increases in efficiency of blood flow to the brain and muscles, with threat states having the opposite effect. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984317302618">Recent research</a> has identified that those who have little emotional connection with their leader are more likely to experience a threat state, which is bad for health and performance.</p>
<p>This has far-reaching implications that can explain recent events at Manchester United. By introducing a manager who understands the deeply entrenched values and vision of the club, a strong emotional connection has developed in a short space of time, contributing to positive stress and improved performance of players.</p>
<p>Based on the club’s <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/01/25/arsenal-vs-manchester-united-fa-cup-fourth-round-live-score/">recent successes</a>, it is telling that the negative stress afflicting the team occurred before Solskjaer’s appointment, and has seemingly quickly disappeared since his arrival.</p>
<p>From this change in Manchester United’s fortunes, it is clear that strong respectful relationships and genuine emotional connections play a large part in the way a team functions. The ability to lead in this way should not be overlooked in a manager, even if actual experience in the job is lacking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110757/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Having a huge emotional connection to the club and its fans means Solskjaer could lead Manchester United more effectively than Mourinho.Anthony Miller, PhD Candidate and Lecturer, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1092252019-01-21T18:40:00Z2019-01-21T18:40:00ZHow moving house changes you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253821/original/file-20190115-152965-1hkce4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To make a success of moving home, to the country for example, it helps to be open to the ways a place will change you.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rachael Wallis</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people move in the summer months, but not everyone realises that moving starts a process of identity transformation that never really stops. </p>
<p>I first noticed something about place changing a person when I moved to Canada. While Canada and Australia share many similarities, there were still significant differences. The clothes worn were one, and occasionally a phrase would seem unfamiliar. I was teased for saying “queue” instead of “line up”, and “no worries” instead of “no problem”. </p>
<p>When I moved back to Australia, to tropical Cairns, I found myself in a world that moved on “tropical time”. It could hardly have been more different from the fast-paced world of North America. I had to adapt.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-new-seachangers-now-its-younger-australians-moving-out-of-the-big-cities-103762">Meet the new seachangers: now it's younger Australians moving out of the big cities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Identities are created and evolve in <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0030.xml">places</a>. Places can be physical, geographical areas and can also be places inhabited virtually, including online games, forums and blogs, or in discourse, such as books and magazines. These places continually shape our identities, changing as we live our lives day by day.</p>
<p>When we move to a new house, especially if it’s a big move such as from city to country or from one country to another, the process of moving inevitably changes us. For a start, we are now a newcomer and the “locals” will speak of us that way. That shapes how we are perceived and perhaps even whether and how we are accepted socially. The norms and morés of the new community may influence us in other ways, even prescribing how we are “supposed” to act in the new area.</p>
<h2>‘City girls’ and ‘country girls’</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://eprints.usq.edu.au/34713/">recent research</a> into how media affect lifestyle migrants in rural Queensland, I looked at how place changes people. Many of the women I spoke to described themselves as a “city girl” or a “country girl”. These women framed their identity in relation to their location.</p>
<p>The women who called themselves a “city girl” often chose activities that took them to places where they felt they could relate more – such as the shops, galleries and other amenities of the city. Their identification with the city resulted in weaker bonds locally and sometimes meant that they chose to return to the city. Certainly, they were less satisfied with country life. </p>
<p>On the other hand, women who identified as a “country girl” engaged in activities accessible in their rural locations, including crafts, cooking, gardening and outdoor activities. Their free time reinforced their emplaced nature and strengthened their ties to their place and the people in it. They adapted to being in the country and were happy with where they lived. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/imagining-your-own-seachange-how-media-inspire-our-great-escapes-105207">Imagining your own SeaChange – how media inspire our great escapes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How do you adapt to your new life?</h2>
<p>Knowing what to do in certain places is a form of capital, as <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0083.xml">Pierre Bourdieu</a> outlines. Capital describes the knowledge needed to play the game in a particular place. </p>
<p>There are different types of capital, including cultural, economic and educational. Knowing how to act when working at a major company, for example, is different from knowing how to get on when unemployed. These are different fields, which require different capitals. One requires corporate smarts, the other stipulates smarts in various other areas.</p>
<p>Even if our fields don’t change as dramatically as described above, we still use differing capitals when at work, at home, with friends and as a parent.
The way we learn how to act, or adapt, is achieved through the expansion of what’s called habitus. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254652/original/file-20190120-100267-11neryr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ordering coffee is part of many people’s daily ritual, but don’t expect a cafe on every corner outside the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/shot-young-women-friends-placing-order-359555207?src=6hQ7jKTzpcGJ8eFmOXwZSA-1-0">Jacob Lund/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Habitus is the stuff we do without thinking – the beliefs, norms and ways of doing things that are a part of us. If we were in a witness protection program, these are the things that would trip us up and lead the bad guys to us. It’s simple stuff, like ordering coffee a certain way, or bigger things like thinking about the world through a particular framework or liking blue or living in the city.</p>
<p>To expand our habitus, we need to see new ways of doing things and imagine these for ourselves. This could happen by watching TV shows, reading books, travelling to other parts of the world or seeing someone else do something differently. It’s hard to change habitus, because we need to be open to new ideas that permeate our reality and we need to like them enough to decide to adopt them and let them become a part of us.</p>
<p>When we move, we are changing the field we occupy. To adapt to this, we watch how other people play the game and, to fit in, we most likely adopt these ideas within our habitus and change a bit. At the same time, we might influence the people around us, changing them a little bit too. It works dynamically.</p>
<p>So, yes, moving countries or to the country from the city is an identity-altering project, and the more the fields are different, the more we have to adapt.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Wallis received funding for this research from the Australian Government's Research Training Program. </span></em></p>Think moving won’t change you? You might want to rethink that. To feel ‘at home’ you need to accept the new place where you live as part of your changing identity.Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Research Fellow, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/996442018-07-11T20:07:21Z2018-07-11T20:07:21Z‘Where are you from?’ is a complicated question. This is how young Australians answer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227005/original/file-20180710-70054-mkrvi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wher're you from, mate?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Weyne Yew/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Where are you from?” is a question everyone is likely to be asked at some point in their lives. It’s also an increasingly common question as people live, study and work across the globe. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/alr.ahead-of-print/applirev-2017-0043/applirev-2017-0043.xml">study</a> looked at how 642 Australian adolescents from Queensland and Victoria respond to the question “where are you from?”, and why they respond as they do to help explain why this question can cause so much misunderstanding. </p>
<p>The answer lies in the different ways this question can be interpreted, the amount of information adolescents feel they want to provide, and why people think they are being asked the question in the first place.</p>
<p>There are four important factors that affect how young people responded.</p>
<h2>Geographic location</h2>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LYCKzpXEW6E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Those four words have multiple layers of meaning. At one level, the question may have relatively little to do with physical location – it’s simply a way of starting a conversation (“wher’re you from mate?”).</p>
<p>For these people, a valid answer could include “Heaven on Earth”. Others see the question as a request for a location. For these people, a vague response such as “from the middle of nowhere” would not be satisfactory. </p>
<p>Even individuals who interpret the question as a request for a physical location may not think about location in the same way. Some people may zoom out (“I’m from down under”). Others may zoom in (“Bendigo, Calgully”). </p>
<p>Responses also <a href="https://mabelkwong.com/2013/11/14/the-struggle-to-answer-where-are-you-from/">depend on the context</a> of the discussion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a different country, I would say ‘Australia’ if overseas. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>They may also relate to one’s personal identity: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would say Victoria. I don’t like to give away too much information about myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - because I want to be known as a city kid and not a bogan. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-you-junior-novel-george-wants-to-help-kids-understand-gender-identity-50835">Who are you? Junior novel George wants to help kids understand gender identity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Personal connections with place help convey a sense of belonging (“Australia, mate! Say it with enthusiasm as people know Australia is a great place”). One’s sense of belonging can be reinforced by adding Aussie slang or by shortening the name of the place in the typical Australian fashion (such as “Rocky” for Rockhampton). </p>
<p>Belonging can also be tied to language. In particular, the Aussie English accent (“Tasmania, because everyone asks about my Tassie accent”). A response that ties belonging to English can be quite unnerving for anyone who speaks a language other than English, or speaks English with an accent other than the Australian accent. They may feel like they don’t belong.</p>
<h2>Family ties</h2>
<p>For some, place identity may also be associated with one’s broader family identity (“Australia because I was born in Australia and so were my parents” or “from Australia as seven generations have been from here”). </p>
<p>A response of this type can also be unsettling for new Australians who may voice this in their own responses to the “where are you from” question through a “but” statement as in “Australia, but parents from Malaysia”, or “I was born here, but I’m part Dutch”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226813/original/file-20180709-122253-7w62mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226813/original/file-20180709-122253-7w62mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226813/original/file-20180709-122253-7w62mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226813/original/file-20180709-122253-7w62mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226813/original/file-20180709-122253-7w62mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226813/original/file-20180709-122253-7w62mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226813/original/file-20180709-122253-7w62mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Family identity and appearance also play a role in how people answere questions about where they’re from.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Roman Kraft/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alternatively, others may present their dual identity with a more confident “with” statement (“I am Australian with Greek heritage”). You may want to listen out for these prepositions to help you understand how migrants position themselves as Australians. </p>
<h2>Appearance</h2>
<p>Still others, when asked where they’re from, may not focus on the words but on the reason they have been asked the question. They may assume it’s because they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/07/where-are-you-really-from-skewers-tsingular-white-australian-identity">look or speak differently</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia but my dad is from Hong Kong, hence the skin and hair colouring. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I say I have Papua New Guinean heritage but I am Australian, because people want an explanation about who I am. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This may be the reason many white Australians in Australia are not asked this question as frequently. One Australian adolescent in our <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/alr.ahead-of-print/applirev-2017-0043/applirev-2017-0043.xml">study</a> on place identity talked about the issue this way: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia because I was born here and as a white person I’m unlikely to be asked where I’m from “originally”.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-a-place-of-belonging-and-pride-and-some-telltale-fractures-36663">Australia, a place of belonging and pride – and some telltale fractures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Temporal framing</h2>
<p>Finally, individuals can interpret the “where from” question in temporally different ways. For some, the answer is timeless (“Australia!”). For others, it’s connected with memories and embraces the past (“Australia because I was born and raised here”). </p>
<p>A focus on the past may also cause new Australians to question their status as Australians. So perhaps, in the spirit of inclusion for migrants, children of migrants and minority groups, we need to think about how we respond to the “where are you from” question and think about a response that relates to the present: “Australia, because I live here, not because I was born here”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99644/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donna Starks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those four words have multiple layers of meaning. How young Aussies answered depended on multiple factors, such as the colour of their skin, family ties and where they live geographically.Donna Starks, Associate Professor of Language in Education, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/904572018-01-25T19:13:21Z2018-01-25T19:13:21ZHow to have a better conversation about Australia Day<p>I’m going to hazard a guess that you’ve found the conversation around changing the date of Australia Day a tad frustrating. There are plenty of loud voices offering different views, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much genuine engagement between the various sides. It has devolved into more of a slanging match than a healthy conversation.</p>
<p>As a philosopher with an interest in how we argue and disagree with each other, and how those arguments and disagreements often go off the rails, I’m interested in understanding why this particular debate has proven so problematic, and whether there are ways to steer it towards more constructive territory.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-day-survives-despite-revealing-a-nations-rifts-and-wounds-89768">Why Australia Day survives, despite revealing a nation's rifts and wounds</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Who we are</h2>
<p>One of the biggest difficulties with talking about something like Australia Day is that it’s intricately tied to our identity – particularly our <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html">social identity</a>.</p>
<p>We aren’t just isolated, autonomous individuals. We are social creatures who form into groups. In turn, these groups provide us with narratives that help us understand our place in the world. They inform our values and tell us who our allies are (our in-group) and who our enemies are (our out-groups).</p>
<p>So being a “Baby Boomer” or “Millennial”, a “Collingwood supporter” or “Broncos fan”, a “Christian”, “Muslim” or even an “atheist” connects us to other people we perceive to be in the same group. Similarly, Baby Boomers railing against Millennials, AFL supporters ribbing NRL supporters, and believers jibing about non-believers helps reinforce our identity in our chosen groups.</p>
<p>One core problem with the Australia Day debate is that there are at least two “Australian” identities involved who are talking past each other, and they each see Australia Day and January 26 in very different light.</p>
<p>Consider the identity expressed in this quote from former Australian Prime Minister <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/australia-day-debate-there-are-364-other-days-to-wear-a-black-armband/news-story/88cb69ef84cb215c64f90fc6102c105b">Tony Abbott</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] it’s hard to imagine a better Australia in the absence of the Western civilisation that began here from that date. […] How could any Australian’s heart not beat with pride?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You could read this as Abbott emphasising a narrative of “Australia as a success story”. And while he acknowledges in the article that “not everything’s perfect in contemporary Australia” - referring to the disadvantage experienced by many Indigenous Australians - he still asserts that we, as Australians, should feel proud of what the country has achieved.</p>
<p>For Abbott, January 26 is a perfectly suitable symbol of “Australia as a success story”, because he believes much of that success stemmed from the introduction of “Western civilisation” to this continent.</p>
<p>This brand of Australian identity also tends to be associated with a particular cultural and ethnic picture, one strongly informed by the country’s colonial roots and its 20th-century post-colonial “coming of age”.</p>
<p>That picture was formed in a time when a person’s national identity typically overlapped with a relatively homogeneous ethnic identity. That has changed dramatically in the past 50 years, with nation-states like Australia being home to multiple cultural and ethnic groups.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/get-yer-hand-off-it-mate-australian-slang-is-not-dying-90022">Get yer hand off it, mate, Australian slang is not dying</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This shift has put pressure on the idea that being “Australian” necessarily means being of Anglo or European descent, which is unsettling for many people. This is particularly because some of the cultures that are now becoming part of the Australian identity used to be out-groups that were used to help reinforce Anglo-European Australian identity.</p>
<h2>The New Australia</h2>
<p>Many Australians don’t share Abbott’s narrative, and their identity as “Australian” is significantly different to the one he has expressed. For them, “Australian” has a wider variety of meanings and cultural influences.</p>
<p>This view also often acknowledges the negative aspects of colonisation, such as the legacy of non-Anglo-European out-group exclusion (often in the form of racism), the destruction of Indigenous cultures, and the social disadvantage that many Indigenous Australians experience today as a result of “Western civilisation”.</p>
<p>This doesn’t mean they believe Australia is a failure or that they don’t take pride in being Australian. But for them, January 26 in particular symbolises something very different than it does to Abbott, as expressed by journalist and Goori man <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/22/its-convenient-to-say-aboriginal-people-support-australia-day-but-its-not-true">Jack Latimore</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When it comes to the subject of 26 January, the overwhelming sentiment among First Nations people is an uneasy blend of melancholy approaching outright grief, of profound despair, of opposition and antipathy, and always of staunch defiance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This causes a kind of dissonance in people with this perspective when January 26 rolls around. It’s hard to celebrate the good things about Australia on a day that represents, to them, many of the bad things.</p>
<p>Thus the call has not been to eliminate Australia Day, but to move it to a different date that doesn’t cause such dissonance, as expressed by social justice lawyer <a href="http://junkee.com/stopped-celebrating-january-26/143664">Will de Waal</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is not to say that we should not show our pride in being Australian – we absolutely should. I just don’t think we should do this on January 26. No Australian should celebrate on a day of mourning.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Political identity</h2>
<p>But this discussion is further complicated by another dimension of our social identity. Consider this quote from former Labor leader and commentator <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/mark-latham-leave-australia-day-alone/news-story/649ab0b991b1b6eb2eb87e2f0ad8d4e4">Mark Latham</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As each year millions of Australians rally around Australia Day on 26 January as a chance to feel good about our country and its remarkable achievements, the Greens’ leader Richard Di Natale has announced that one of his top priorities for 2018 is to “change the date”.</p>
<p>In truth, the Left’s grievance industry is now so comprehensive, so all-encompassing, they are triggered by every significant date on the calendar, from 26 January to Christmas Day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here Latham is not only referencing the positive aspect of his identity as “Australian”, but he’s also reinforcing his identity as “anti-Left”. By casting aspersions on the Greens and their leader he is bucking up his own side by putting the other side down. This is typical social identity reinforcing behaviour.</p>
<p>Thus the debate around Australia Day has also become a proxy for a wider conflict between two political identities, the Left and the Right. And this is where our social identity - particularly our political identity - can serve as a barrier to good conversations.</p>
<h2>Turning it around</h2>
<p>The good news is that there are ways to turn this conversation around and make it more constructive. It’s not going to be resolved overnight, but it’s probably a conversation worth having before the next Australia Day rolls around.</p>
<p>First, we need to remind ourselves that identity does matter. If we speak in a way that challenges someone’s identity, they’re likely to dig in their heels and get defensive. When that happens, the chances of having any constructive conversation evaporates.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-science-communicators-can-learn-from-listening-to-people-25087">What science communicators can learn from listening to people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One way to avoid this pitfall is simply to listen. Instead of starting by voicing and defending your opinions, try asking questions and listening to what others have to say. Ask them what “Australia” means to them, or what kind of Australia they’d like to live in and celebrate. Then acknowledge what they’ve said, even if you have a different view.</p>
<p>Listening is a powerful thing. Think about how good it feels when someone gives you even a few uninterrupted minutes to express what you think. By listening, you don’t only have a better shot at understanding what the other person is talking about, but you’re also signalling to them that you’re willing to give them your time and attention to hear them out. Even that simple gesture can short-circuit the defence mechanisms that prevent deeper engagement.</p>
<p>If we can get a bit better at listening, then we can start having a more constructive conversation about what it means to be Australian and how we should celebrate it. And that sounds like a good conversation to have.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Dean does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Debates around changing the date of Australia Day tend to run afoul of our sense of social identity, but there are ways to cut through and have a good conversation.Tim Dean, Honorary Associate in Philosophy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/765072017-05-21T21:39:35Z2017-05-21T21:39:35ZLet cities speak: what sounds define us now?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167105/original/file-20170428-15121-xxzqu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The village bell was once a powerful symbol of sonic identity. Living in the noise of today's global cities, what sounds exist that express our communal identity?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric Fidler/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the first of two “Let Cities Speak” articles. While Western city soundscapes are increasingly homogeneous, these articles seek to explore the sounds that still define us and the ways in which we might discover new sonic identities for our cities.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>When village bells tolled in pre-industrial landscapes, the sound was laden with meaning. Religious representation, the passing of the days, and imminent warnings and dangers were all attached to its perception. Their historical meaning to communities has been thoroughly researched. </p>
<p>Alain Corbin’s <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/village-bells/9780231104500">book</a>, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the 19th-century French Countryside, explores the central role these sounds played in everyday life, both in theistic and secular society. </p>
<p>The World Soundscape Project, led by Murray Schafer, investigated the acoustic horizons formed by bell sounds in their <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/%7Etruax/FVS/fvs.html">Five Village Soundscapes research</a>, and how these sonic boundaries related to community identity. </p>
<h2>The fading village bell</h2>
<p>If you have ever visited those remaining ancient villages of Europe where the noises of contemporary society remain absent, you can hear not just the initial strike of a bell but its lingering resonance rolling through the streets. It marks a time to stop and listen as the sound stretches out, before receding into inaudibility. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167101/original/file-20170428-15112-izunam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Église Saint-Julien. Some sources indicate that the church bell (cloche) dates from 1691.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">jan buchholtz/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now, when we hear church bells toll, the resonant tail is lost; only the initial strike of the bell can be heard. Its initial power is enough to compete with contemporary clamours, but along with its religious and quotidian meanings, the lingering resonances of the bell are swallowed by the insistent voice of progress – the ever-present call of our cities. </p>
<p>It is easy to romanticise the sound of bells, regardless of their beatific qualities. One of a series of art interventions by Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger, titled <a href="http://www.triennalebrugge2015.be/src/Frontend/Files/userfiles/files/O%2BA_Press%20Release">Sounding Bruges</a> created for the 2015 Brugge Triennale, wrote a series of compositions for the carillon bells of a medieval belfry to create new compositions and rhythmic patterns. It brought to our attention the typically unwavering repetition of bell compositions. </p>
<p>This intervention acts as a reminder that the repetitive sound of village bells can be understood as the sound of control, as expressed by the religious and political authorities of the day. </p>
<p>As much as we might lament the homogenising impact of noise on our city environments – caused primarily by vehicles and air conditioning – we might also reflect on them as sonic expressions of industrial processes and technological evolution. </p>
<p>These are the sounds that have forever changed our lives, for better or worse, replacing the age of the village bell.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ppyxLFh4OFA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">For the villagers of Helmsdale in Sutherland, Scotland, the chiming of the clock tower is still part of their lives.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Searching for our sonic identity</h2>
<p>However, regardless of religious and political intent, the village bell was a powerful symbol of sonic identity. </p>
<p>In an era when global cities are defined by unerring technological drones and interruptions (i.e. sirens and hand-held devices), what <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Soundmark.html">soundmarks</a> express our communal identity today? </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-66" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/66/7c41be27ab9817a76a894eaf1ce0e2148c045783/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-a-new-relationship-with-urban-noise-46207">previous article</a> for The Conversation, I wrote that we are in danger of becoming the “passive and defeated receptors” of our city noise. Like the ancient bells, our subtleties and particularities are at risk of being subsumed by the swamp of noise, providing no significant moment to which we can attach our identities.</p>
<p>Even the famed gun salute of Anzac Day, a soundmark in which many Australians might find identity, <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/anzac-day-2017-damp-commemoration-for-diggers-fallen-and-living-20170425-gvrvpz.html">has been silenced</a>. </p>
<p>The factory workers of the 20th century, and their surrounding communities, were connected by way of the <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Sound_Signal.html">now-extinct siren</a> that called for lunch or the end of the day. The bell of the local school is a soundmark that may linger in some places, reminding the community that the sounds of children are about to fill the air (if indeed any walk home – now, it most likely follows the sounds of multiple people-carriers arriving for pick-up). </p>
<p>It is worth noting the strange dichotomy in cities like Melbourne, where the clamour of busy centres is countered by the enduring silence of the suburbs. </p>
<p>In my own suburb of Glen Huntly the night silence is relentless. I’d prefer to hear the cicadas, frogs and birds of nature – the presence of life – than the total absence of life that so often marks our suburban existence. </p>
<p>Indeed, to call nature “silent” is a fallacy. In comparison to suburbia its soundscapes are eventful and vibrant. Yet this fallacy <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151006-nature-sounds-science-animals-music/">is fast becoming fact</a> as a great silence falls across nature, concomitant with the rise of the global city.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167100/original/file-20170428-15117-1qorqlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167100/original/file-20170428-15117-1qorqlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167100/original/file-20170428-15117-1qorqlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167100/original/file-20170428-15117-1qorqlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167100/original/file-20170428-15117-1qorqlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167100/original/file-20170428-15117-1qorqlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167100/original/file-20170428-15117-1qorqlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sounds of Melbourne’s trams have provided the city with a certain ‘distinctness’ for many years now.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">VirtualWolf/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Another victim of homogenisation</h2>
<p>There is one familiar sound in my suburb, like much of Melbourne, that can still reach our ears: the lonely screech of the late-night 67 tram turning corners. I picture those workers and late-night partiers returning home, as I’m curled up in bed, its driver glaring into an illuminated distance.</p>
<p><a href="https://soundslikenoise.org/2011/10/10/trams-in-melbourne-a-soundmark/">This soundmark</a> is made all the more meaningful because there is a history in each screech – every night, for as many years as those steel parts of wheel and track have connected. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U98z1_2kBG4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The sounds of a tram travelling through the city are familiar to almost every Melburnian.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the bells of trams, like the horns of trains, have fallen victim to homogenisation. Little character to be found here, unfortunately.</p>
<p>But what about now, as community-defining sounds increasingly disappear into the noise? Could we find this to be an opportunity, rather than a lament? Do we have the opportunity to discover new sonic identities? How can communities work towards soundscapes that produce meaning? </p>
<p>I will discuss some research approaches exploring these questions in a second article.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read the second “Let Cities Speak” article <a href="https://theconversation.com/let-cities-speak-reclaiming-a-place-for-community-with-sounds-76998">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Lacey has received funding from RMIT University, The City of Melbourne, The City of Casey and the Transurban Innovation Grant.</span></em></p>Sound, as a still relatively unexplored medium of urban design, provides an obvious starting point in the search for new relationships and identities in the contemporary city.Jordan Lacey, Research Fellow, Architecture & Design, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769982017-05-21T20:10:57Z2017-05-21T20:10:57ZLet cities speak: reclaiming a place for community with sounds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167447/original/file-20170502-26332-4f7oon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Noise transformation and community-led design projects are reclaiming unwanted spaces that lay adjacent to motorways.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">rogiro/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the second of two “Let Cities Speak” articles. While Western city soundscapes are increasingly homogeneous, these articles seek to explore the sounds that still define us and the ways in which we might discover new sonic identities for our cities.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Noise is everywhere. We live with it, inside and outside our homes. It defines contemporary urban life, the world over. Its companion, silence, also holds its own: from the stretches of suburbia to the degraded spaces of nature, a seeming absence of life is apparent. </p>
<p>The first “Let Cities Speak” article finished by asking: how do communities discover sonic identities within these contemporary soundscapes? This article points to research projects that seek answers to this question.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167299/original/file-20170501-12979-13est04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Speakers run along the sides of the William Barak Bridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Ilagan/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have argued <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/sonic-rupture-9781501309977/">elsewhere</a> that sound installations can act to “rupture” noisy soundscapes, producing zones of experiential diversity. There are many <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/sonic-placemaking-three-approaches-and-ten-attributes-for-the-creation-of-enduring-urban-sound-art-installations/9980C795AD85D907E7BCB1B59B413F59">international examples</a> that attempt to achieve this. The artist locates intensive listening encounters within the city, bringing our attention to new sensory experiences.</p>
<p>An excellent local example, in Melbourne, is Sonia Leber and David Chesworth’s <a href="http://leberandchesworth.com/public-spaces/proximities/">Proximites</a> at William Barak Bridge. This is a permanently fixed sound installation that provides experiential diversity for those willing to seek it. Voices of the Commonwealth countries dance around the listener as they look upon the city. The recording below provides a sample of these sounds.</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="66" data-image="" data-title="Sonia Leber and David Chesworth's work at William Barak Bridge" data-size="1588002" data-source="Author provided" data-source-url="" data-license="Author provided" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/719/proximities-stereo-denoise-01.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
Sonia Leber and David Chesworth’s work at William Barak Bridge.
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span><span class="download"><span>1.51 MB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/719/proximities-stereo-denoise-01.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
</div></p>
<p>Robin Fox created a temporary installation in Northbank, Melbourne, titled <a href="http://robinfox.com.au/projects/giant-theremin/">Giant Theremin</a>. This interactive sculpture produces electronic sounds that entice a range of playful responses from visitors, including dance, laughter and even BMX stunts.</p>
<p>But, increasingly, such artistic interventions, while important and valuable, serve only to provide the “possibility” of new listening experiences. Whether such spaces should become places of significant sonic identity is an entirely different question, and one that is presumably beyond the artist’s control. </p>
<h2>Increasing appetite for “placemaking” sounds</h2>
<p>My research is turning toward community-led design in which a more meaningful essence of “placemaking” might be found. </p>
<p>After all, how can we expect to develop sonic identities if members of the community are not involved in their very discovery? </p>
<p>I am involved in two research projects that are exploring this proposition. One reshapes motorway noise into meaningful listening experiences. The other searches for a soundmark in the silence of suburbia.</p>
<h2>Transforming motorway noise</h2>
<p>Research funded by the <a href="https://www.transurban.com/sustainability/innovation-grants">Transurban Innovation Grant</a> is working with communities living with motorway noise to discover <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/transurban-rmit-university-team-up-to-tackle-road-noise/news-story/4cfaa7f53bd70fae7c064ce663aa5f07">“noise transformation”</a> approaches that help to produce more liveable conditions. </p>
<p>Where the constant drone of passing traffic is inescapable, noise transformation combined with urban design aims to reclaim those unused green spaces that border these busy roads. </p>
<p>The research is in its early stages, but what we have found to date is that the community members who have experienced our prototype point very strongly to those transformed soundscapes that – in their words – reduce anxiety, and provide interesting listening experiences that warrant ongoing visits.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169481/original/file-20170516-11963-6z9vd8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Where noisy traffic is inescapably close (above), noise transformation work (below) combined with urban design can reclaim green spaces for public use.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jack Connor</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169483/original/file-20170516-11945-77rymf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The researchers were surprised by the community’s enthusiasm for the transformation sites. There was certainly no expectation of a positive response to what might have been seen as a band-aid solution to an ongoing urban problem. Instead, what we witnessed was a genuine curiosity and fascination with an act of futuristic placemaking that could one day be part of everyday life.</p>
<h2>Creating a suburban soundmark</h2>
<p>In Melbourne’s southeast, research funded by the City of Casey is working to integrate an interactive artwork into a community centre plaza at Clyde North. The artwork plays back local field recordings that were identified by the local community via a Facebook page. The question was posted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What sounds define your suburb?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not withstanding a few droll, though humorous, responses (“the voices in my head”, “the sounds of hoons doing burn-outs at 2am”), we were encouraged by the range of positive responses. These suggested strong civic pride – especially those that pointed towards the sounds and smells of multiculturalism and social life in general. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168493/original/file-20170509-20732-1t3sj8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A render of the forthcoming integrated artwork for the Clyde North community centre commissioned by the City of Casey. Research team: Jordan Lacey, Ross McLeod, Charles Anderson, Chuan Khoo, Eliot Palmer, Camilla Hannan, Nat Grant.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The work’s behaviour is dependent on how locals choose to interact with the central “sensing” stone. The sensing stone is sculpted bluestone with four aluminium strip inlays. The aluminium strips detect human presence through the electrical charge latent in our bodies, which is sent as data to a memory system that responds with audio, lighting and vibration. </p>
<p>The more interaction, the more lively will be the <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Soundmark.html">soundmark</a>, which it generates at dawn and dusk. </p>
<p>Those who read the first “Let Cities Speak” article might note a relationship with the temporal consistency of the village bell. The artwork’s soundmark emerges twice a day, imbuing it with a quotidian character. </p>
<p>But in this case, the sounds played have been identified by the Clyde North community, and shaped by them. Given that the soundmark’s behaviour is based on community interaction during the day, the work acts as a type of social barometer reflecting back to the community their relationship with the artwork. </p>
<p>The following recording is of our working prototype, yet to be installed. The low hum is a vibrating steel plate, which responds to human interaction. The other sounds are field recordings of the Casey suburb, as identified by the community: a youth park and a local wetland.</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="60" data-image="" data-title="Casey soundmark prototype" data-size="1445831" data-source="Author provided" data-source-url="" data-license="Author provided" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/718/casey-soundmark-rec-01.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
Casey soundmark prototype.
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span><span class="download"><span>1.38 MB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/718/casey-soundmark-rec-01.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
</div></p>
<h2>It’s time to start listening</h2>
<p>While these research projects are funded by two very different sources – private industry and local council – what they both expose is an appetite within local communities to be informed and included in art, design and infrastructure projects that affect community life. </p>
<p>Rather than solutions being imposed “from the top” – by industry, governments or even public art programs – today’s challenge is to learn from the community. Because it is here that identity is to be found.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read the first “Let Cities Speak” article <a href="https://theconversation.com/let-cities-speak-what-sounds-define-us-now-76507">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Lacey has received funding from RMIT University, The City of Melbourne, The City of Casey and the Transurban Innovation Grant.</span></em></p>Communities have an increasing desire to be informed and included in local art, design and infrastructure projects. This has inspired new ways of dealing with noise-afflicted areas.Jordan Lacey, Research Fellow, Architecture & Design, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/735522017-04-21T11:07:58Z2017-04-21T11:07:58ZImmigrants suffer higher rates of psychosis – here’s how to start helping them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166105/original/file-20170420-20071-l7v89w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/collections/438799/lonely-people">Pedro Gabriel Miziara/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Psychosis, sometimes called schizophrenia, is a psychological state characterised by symptoms such as paranoia and hallucinations. In England, <a href="http://www.psychiatry.cam.ac.uk/files/2014/05/Final-report-v1.05-Jan-12.pdf">one person in every 100</a> will be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder at some point in their lives. Disturbingly, evidence gathered from Western nations suggests that immigrants experience psychosis at rates <a href="http://mighealth.net/eu/images/5/53/Cant.pdf">two to five times higher</a> than non-immigrants. </p>
<p>Our recent <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791616301781">research</a> and <a href="https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3004635/">theorising</a> suggests that discrimination and social exclusion may lie at the heart of the immigrant psychosis problem. </p>
<p>We define who we are largely on the basis of the groups to which we belong. This internalisation of our group memberships is referred to as “social identity”. Social groups may revolve around common interests and beliefs such as book clubs or political parties, but they may also emerge from social categories such as gender, culture, and ethnicity. </p>
<p>Possessing meaningful and positive social identities <a href="https://www.academia.edu/16709538/Social_Identity_Health_and_Well-Being_An_Emerging_Agenda_for_Applied_Psychology">has been linked</a> to a range of positive health outcomes, from slower HIV progression among HIV-positive gay men to improved general health and life satisfaction. Lacking strong social identification is also associated with higher rates of reported depression and anxiety, while interventions designed to help people join and identify with groups can help to <a href="http://www.groups4health.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2016-JAD-Groups-4-Health.pdf">reverse these effects</a>. </p>
<h2>Cultural identity and paranoid delusions</h2>
<p>In the US and the UK, recent elections and referendums have been won on the back of demands for tougher immigration policies. Phrases such as <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/donald-trump-courts-immigration-ban-170206042616383.html">“immigration ban”</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/29/everything-need-know-donald-trumps-muslim-ban/">“Muslim ban”</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/27/trump-immigration-plan-refugees-vetting-reaction">“refugee ban”</a> litter news headlines. </p>
<p>Regardless of the motives behind these policies, such messages seem particularly harmful for immigrants. Anti-immigration sentiment, for example, has been linked to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcop.21589/full">feelings of isolation and depression</a> among Mexican families living in the US. </p>
<p>There is <a href="http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/180/6/475">compelling evidence</a> for an association between this kind of racial discrimination and psychosis. However, our work suggests that having strong identification to a particular culture, such as African-Caribbean or Muslim, may counteract the effects of anti-immigration rhetoric and discrimination on psychotic symptoms. </p>
<p>Paranoid delusions – fixed, false beliefs that you are being persecuted by a person or group – are the most common symptom of psychosis. <a href="https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3004635/">Our research has suggested</a> that weak identification with a particular cultural group leads to the early warning signs of paranoid delusions, including low self-esteem and a reduced sense of control over one’s life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166109/original/file-20170420-20093-mgv5ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166109/original/file-20170420-20093-mgv5ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166109/original/file-20170420-20093-mgv5ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166109/original/file-20170420-20093-mgv5ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166109/original/file-20170420-20093-mgv5ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166109/original/file-20170420-20093-mgv5ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166109/original/file-20170420-20093-mgv5ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exploring social identity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research by one of us – Richard Bentall – using data from 208 bilingual (English and Arabic) Emirati women attending college in the United Arab Emirates, provides an <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791616301781">empirical demonstration</a> of the link between cultural identity and paranoia. The study’s participants completed a survey that measured their level of paranoia, as well as their language proficiency and Emirati identification. People who were more paranoid tended to agree with statements such as “I believe that some people want to hurt me deliberately”. People with strong Emriati identities agreed with statements like “I feel a bond with Emiratis.” </p>
<p>They also completed a computerised task that assessed their implicit preference for both Emirati and American culture, which required them to indicate whether words were positive (for example, “fun”) or negative (for example, “pain”) as quickly as possible. Before each word was presented, an image associated with either Emirati or American identity briefly flashed up on the screen. For example, an image of a traditional <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaya#/media/File:Islamic_Clothing_Abaya.jpg">abaya</a>, or cloak (Emirati identity), or the Statue of Liberty (American identity). If people felt positive about Emiratis, they had faster reaction times to positive words preceded by Emirati identity images, and slower reactions times to negative words preceded by Emirati identity images. </p>
<p>We discovered that participants with greater Arabic language proficiency and stronger implicit preferences for Emirati culture were less paranoid. The most paranoid participants were those who indicated English was their dominant language and who displayed an implicit preference for American culture. </p>
<p>These findings suggest that people more connected to their original culture and practices are less likely to become paranoid. Ongoing <a href="http://www.clahrc-nwc.nihr.ac.uk/our-work/improving-mental-health/HouseholdHealthSurvey.php">work</a> that we are doing within neighbourhoods in the UK is indicating a similar effect: people who identify more with their local neighbourhood report fewer paranoid beliefs.</p>
<h2>To integrate or separate from your new culture?</h2>
<p>So, if strong cultural identities can protect people from developing psychosis, is it best for people to maintain their original cultural identity after immigrating to a new country or to identify with their host culture – or both? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Johan_Mackenbach/publication/5761533_Ethnic_Density_of_Neighborhoods_and_Incidence_of_Psychotic_Disorders_Among_Immigrants/links/09e41511c8e9c57280000000.pdf">Evidence</a> suggests that immigrants who live near people from their own culture have lower rates of psychosis. Known as the “ethnic density effect”, this suggests that maintaining ties to your original culture protects against psychotic symptoms. </p>
<p>You could argue this indicates that distancing yourself from your host culture in favour of your original culture may be beneficial. However, if, as we argue, the risk of psychosis is increased by a person feeling isolated or discriminated against, a better strategy might be to work on increasing tolerance and welcoming immigrants into more social groups. </p>
<p>That said, research has indicated that being discriminated against in some cases <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.460.8563&rep=rep1&type=pdf">enhances cultural identity and well-being</a>. However, other research has shown that higher levels of discrimination <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/36/4/761/667374/Discrimination-and-the-incidence-of-psychotic">are associated with more psychosis</a>, suggesting any positive effects of discrimination are swamped by its negative effects. </p>
<p>When it comes to social identification, it is a case of the more groups the merrier. Possessing multiple social identities has been associated with <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tegan_Cruwys/publication/257143024_Social_group_memberships_protect_against_future_depression_symptoms_and_prevent_depression_relapse/links/0c96052609dacba614000000/Social-group-memberships-protect-against-future-depression-symptoms-and-prevent-depression-relapse.pdf">lower depression</a> and <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.899.5888&rep=rep1&type=pdf">greater resilience in the face of challenges</a>. This implies that identifying with both your original culture and host culture after immigration – through integration – will reap the most mental health benefits.</p>
<p>All this means that if we want to reduce the psychosis burden affecting immigrants, governments and citizens need to increase their efforts to make all people feel welcomed and included, and provide pathways into social groups. The combined body of evidence suggests that anti-immigration rhetoric is likely to foster feelings of isolation and discrimination, and in turn increase immigrant psychosis rates. However, if immigrants feel connected to their original and host culture, and are able to join more social groups, it is likely to counteract this problem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason McIntyre conducts independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) North West Coast. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the NHS, NIHR or the Department of Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Bentall receives funding from the National Institute of Health Research.</span></em></p>Integration reaps mental health benefits.Jason McIntyre, Research Associate & Core Methodologist at Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool, University of LiverpoolRichard Bentall, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739102017-03-10T02:03:14Z2017-03-10T02:03:14ZGoodbye glamour-puss and rugged hero: smokers lose brand identity with plain cigarette packaging<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160248/original/image-20170310-3700-1s4evjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People’s sense of self is partly determined by the groups to which they belong: "I'm a smoker". </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/moriza/5630075068/in/photolist-9zvBaN-4HC1HB-9w8VH-eyfdvD-8KEBE3-diGari-8hzxFK-diG9h4-diG79L-RG1Tbw-HmMWNA-3Wm4s-oc8YE-61cz6f-oc8YC-ouvpJE-5Ljc4i-kVfpmW-sFNZou-7B8U1J-k9qLX-dED9FM-pCyovj-dPoFvw-7V7Nmc-DRC6R3-dgbMEw-8daDd6-7zXPki-hsH7A-namo6m-gjNAP-9jU4KX-9jXay5-qvC4eo-aoXjyk-oc8YJ-7x4TvY-8Y8vwP-p5Md2n-qgkE5L-bDJgTq-ehvbmM-cX7KSS-dQjW6W-67wPDX-qvC45W-pabtjJ-6ebyE4-aFgrtP">moriza/flickr </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Plain cigarette packaging has been a great Australian success story. There’s now strong <a href="http://ris.pmc.gov.au/2016/02/26/tobacco-plain-packaging/">evidence</a> that a record decline in smoking rates occurred soon after plain packaging was introduced in Australia in 2012. In fact, these early impacts were <a href="http://www.tobaccopreventioncessation.com/Refuting-tobacco-industry-funded-research-empirical-data-shows-decline-in-smoking-prevalence-following-introduction-of-plain-packaging-in-Australia,60650,0,2.html">greater than expected</a>. </p>
<p>We know the policy worked, but what’s less clear is why it worked so well.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352853217300093">latest research</a> tested the idea that part of the reason plain packaging has been such a success is because it strips away smoker’s sense of identification with fellow smokers of their brand. </p>
<p>We showed that reductions in brand identity following the introduction of plain packaging predicted lower smoking behaviour. These effects were robust even after we controlled for the increased salience of warning labels and smokers’ prior addiction levels.</p>
<h2>Cigarette brands have social meaning</h2>
<p>Before the introduction of plain packaging, <a href="http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-13-18">many experts</a> predicted plain packs would have limited effects on established smokers, but would deter young people from starting. <a href="http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/24420/1/Moodie_et_al_2012_PHRC_PlainPacks.pdf">Others emphasised</a> that any effects for established smokers would occur because plain packs would make smokers attend more to the health warning labels (made larger at the same time as plain packaging was introduced).</p>
<p>There is <a href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2016/11/15/tobaccocontrol-2016-053166.short">evidence for both</a> of <a href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/25/2/181">these explanations</a>. But my colleagues and I argued that, for established smokers, branded packs don’t just look pretty and distract from the ugly warning labels, they are also full of social meaning that helps smokers define themselves and their smoking behaviour in a positive light.</p>
<p>In making this claim, we drew on some key ideas from established social psychological theory, in particular the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12061/abstract">social identity approach</a>. </p>
<p>The first idea is that people’s sense of self is powerfully determined not just by their individual characteristics (like their personality) but also by the groups to which they belong (“I’m a Queenslander”, “I’m a smoker”, “I’m a feminist”, “I’m a Holden man”). </p>
<p>The second idea is that people usually seek to positively define themselves and often find creative ways to do so.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159478/original/image-20170306-908-9qmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159478/original/image-20170306-908-9qmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159478/original/image-20170306-908-9qmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159478/original/image-20170306-908-9qmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159478/original/image-20170306-908-9qmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159478/original/image-20170306-908-9qmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159478/original/image-20170306-908-9qmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Advertising suggests smokers of this cigarette brand are slim and glamorous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29069717@N02/25962631403/in/photolist-FyegMV-dJyMi9-4E3adY-FhfL6-9E5X1y-6CrMau-9M83jF-9MaPaY-4Bfwa8-5eSpna-5eSpk2-a8o8v8-38F9Yc-3akKYs-6U6Gpz-bVu5ub-9FH1oj-bVu5wC-9FH29G-3soMw7-DWUfh3-StrcPk-ax8zb-RqYPYa-PBePJb-D92kAw-SEMoXv-Ehom81-StBoEP-SrbS63-SBirgy-Rof4Df-SEXPDe-SrbX5m-RqYNZr-RqYNRk-Strd8M-awK9w4-2TjhxJ-56N4EE-3akKT7-3ejkLY-3gMWUc-66Ew2v-b5R8pp-9E5YmL-6mj6Zu-23iQYK-6e5PNH-6YN2km">29069717@N02/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is important because defining yourself positively as a smoker has become a hard sell <a href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/17/1/25.short">in recent years</a>. While smoking was once seen as a <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30537.Cigarettes_Are_Sublime">mark of sophistication</a>, smokers are now often stereotyped as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/10810730305723?scroll=top&needAccess=true">unhealthy and dirty</a>, even <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.896/abstract">among smokers themselves</a>. </p>
<p>One way people might respond to this is to identify as a smoker of a particular brand. Doing so deflects the negative connotations of the category “smoker”. Tobacco companies <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17475750601027089?queryID=%24%7BresultBean.queryID%7D">get this</a>, and use brand identities to subvert the dirtiness of smoking by appealing to the minty-freshness of a slender, smiling woman; or the rugged outsider status of a cowboy. </p>
<p>You can guess where the story goes from here. We predicted that by stripping away branding, plain packs take away the established smokers’ sense of positive brand identity that was helping to maintain their smoking behaviour. </p>
<p>It’s important to note here that media advertising for tobacco has been banned in Australia since 1992. In effect this meant that branded packaging was the last avenue for signalling to smokers themselves and to others about what brands mean. </p>
<h2>Smokers’ changing sense of identity</h2>
<p>We <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352853217300093">ran an online survey</a> of 178 smokers before and after plain packaging was introduced. On both occasions we asked participants about their sense of social identification with fellow smokers of their brand (such as, “I identify with the group of Marlboro smokers”), the stereotypes they linked with smokers of their brand, and their smoking behaviour and quit intentions. </p>
<p>As we predicted, we found positive brand stereotypes, people’s brand identities, and smoking behaviour all decreased after the introduction of plain packaging. But for the first time, we also demonstrated these last two things were related: reductions in brand identity predicted people smoking less, attempting to quit and intending to quit in the future. </p>
<p>We found these associations were robust even after we statistically controlled for the increased salience of warning labels, how heavily people smoked to begin with, and other characteristics like age, gender and socio-economic status.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159479/original/image-20170306-898-a9a2hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159479/original/image-20170306-898-a9a2hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159479/original/image-20170306-898-a9a2hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159479/original/image-20170306-898-a9a2hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159479/original/image-20170306-898-a9a2hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159479/original/image-20170306-898-a9a2hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159479/original/image-20170306-898-a9a2hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Malboro man’ created an association between a cigarette brand and rugged, outdoor men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/february-2015-berlin-large-scale-cowboy-279657575?src=mzDzi4C_C4QaF44Gzs96Tw-1-0">360b / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, we predicted and found evidence that people who identified most strongly with their brand before the policy change experienced the sharpest declines in brand identity, and this went on to predict lower smoking behaviour. This last point makes sense: if cigarette brands weren’t particularly meaningful to a smoker’s sense of self to begin with, then we wouldn’t expect plain packaging to have much of an effect for them.</p>
<p>This evidence is an important contribution to understanding why plain packaging works. Our findings support the idea that plain packaging decreases smoking in established smokers because of a loss of brand identity. </p>
<p>Of course a limitation to the study is that, even though its longitudinal, it’s not experimental. So it’s possible there’s something else we’re not measuring that’s causing the declines in identity and smoking behaviour. </p>
<p>However, by examining changes over time, and controlling for the salience of warning labels, people’s age and levels of prior addiction, we took account of the most obvious alternative explanations for our results. </p>
<p>More broadly, our findings are a good example of how the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12061/abstract">social identity approach</a> is proving to be a powerful tool for understanding health behaviours and for developing novel “<a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:270558">social cures</a>” that harness group processes to drive positive behavioural change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73910/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Webb received funding from an ad-hoc grant from the Australian National University Research School of Psychology to undertake this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Skorich receives funding from the Australian Research Council, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, attached to an Australian Laureate Fellowship. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tegan Cruwys receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Cigarette brands present images of slender, stylish women and strong, independent men. Plain packaging breaks this positive brand identity for some smokers.Hugh Webb, PhD candidate (submitted), Australian National UniversityDaniel Skorich, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandTegan Cruwys, Australian Research Council Fellow: Discovery Early Career Research Award, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.