To spark action on climate change, the conventional wisdom says that awareness must precede action — but neuroscientist Kris De Meyer suggests the opposite is true: actions drive beliefs. He digs into the science behind decision-making and shows how you can rewire your brain to get unstuck on big challenges.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. When you're tackling a major global problem, it's understandable to feel stuck sometimes. And fighting climate change is one of those challenges that can certainly drive us to a kind of helplessness.
In his 2024 talk, climate neuroscientist Chris DeMeyer shares a key to stop feeling stuck. And it applies to all sorts of situations where we need to take more urgent action. That's coming up.
When you're working on a big problem like climate change, it's almost inevitable that there will be moments where you feel disappointed. What's more of a problem is when those occasional disappointments turn into a feeling of being stuck all of the time. When you go, oh my gosh, it doesn't matter whatever I'm trying, it just doesn't seem to be making enough of a difference.
How do we avoid getting stuck like that? Is there an antidote? I'm a neuroscientist, and about 20 years ago, I became interested in the neuroscience of polarization. In the work I did, I learned something really unexpected about how people change. When you become deeply engaged with an issue, it's usually because you've taken some action first.
without having any strong views at that particular moment. This can happen on personal decisions, like when you start to think about whether you're going to be changing jobs. It can also apply to questions like how you'll be voting in the next election or what climate movement organization you're going to join. For a while, you may be wrestling with the question, what's the right choice for me?
But then at some point, your brain will make a first tentative decision. It will say, you know, based on all the thinking that I've done so far, I'm going to be doing this. Send in that job application, vote for this candidate, go to a meeting of this organization, you know, just to check out how they are. Within a few seconds of making that decision, there's a burst of activity in your brain.
It gives yourself a pat on the back for the decision that you just made. And then, through a process of self-justification and self-persuasion, you gradually make yourself more certain of the correctness and the importance of your actions. We call this process actions drive beliefs. The things you do change the stuff that's inside your head. Here's the good news.
Actions drive beliefs is the key to stop feeling stuck. Here's why. As a neuroscientist, I used to go mostly to neuroscience conferences. But from 2015, I was invited more and more to climate communication events. And I noticed something very strange in those events. The actions drive beliefs insight was completely missing from the conversations.
Instead, I heard the same idea over and over again. How do we raise awareness about climate change such that politicians, corporate leaders, citizens will take urgent action? This idea is still so common that we call this the conventional wisdom, the popular view about climate action. Raise awareness first, then translate that into action.
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