Research: Societal change will need both policy and behavioral support

Social change may depend on the relationship between beneficial behaviors (bottom-up) and social policies (top down), according to research from the University of Maine, University of Maine at Augusta, University of Vermont and Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada.
A team of researchers including Laurent Hébert-Dufresne, Ph.D., (lead writer) and Timothy M. Waring, Ph.D., authored “Source-sink behavioural dynamics limit institutional evolution in a group-structured society,” published in “Royal Society Open Science” earlier this year.
The research uses disease modeling to address the feasibility of transformative societal change to address macro issues such as climate change. Survey work occurred online, inspired by epidemiological models.
The...