Green Spandex

from nus.org.uk

What is it about a grown man in green spandex jumping around that makes us want to conserve electricity? It would seem that this alone would be an argument for seeing the consumer as irrational. But then again, people seem to respond to humor. As we saw with the social marketing campaigns this morning, the groups that used humor garnered the most votes.

To me, this points out that people respond to many different influences. Our decisions are not only the result of a cost-benefit analysis. I also see influences that go beyond the social psychology approach. I agree that we are in a constant dialogue with societal norms, and identity is a great example of this, but there seems to be something more that is directing us and limiting our choices. This is my nod ahead to the structural approaches for next week. The structures in which we live make a huge difference on how we behave and on the attitudes we hold. We have been raised in social structures and therefore have had our understanding of the world limited since we were first born. If we consider the way we treat babies, this may become clear. Why is it so important to differentiate the sex of a baby from the day it's born? I realize that for identification in a hospital, it helps, but when the baby is taken home, why does it matter if someone calls it a he or a she? I feel that it matters because we have preconceived understandings of what it means to be a boy or a girl, and  these understandings come from the overarching social structure which we call 'gender'.

These three approaches nestle nicely within each other like matroshka dolls - the structure approach forming the outer layer in which the others sit, then the social-psychology approach which constantly bumps up against the outer layer, and the rational choice approach - which only comes out in specific situations after working through the social-psychology (how can we rationally choose the Wheetabix or Frosted Flakes if we haven't decided what's important to us?).

Maybe this is where we're going with the class, maybe I'm completely off. We'll see if my opinion changes after the next round of seminars and lectures.