The Mind of Sustainability

The authors introduce the science of Mind Genomics to explore what specific messages drive a person to say they will be interested in sustainability and motivated to do something. The messages are the nature of the message and the venue where the message is received. The experiment mixed messages/elements into small vignettes, presented the vignettes to respondents, and obtained ratings. These ratings were then deconstructed into the contribution of the individual elements to motivate respondents, as well as the degree to which the individual elements engage respondents. The results reveal specific messages that drive interest and motivation, respectively, and uncover two mind-sets, those swayed by feelings versus those swayed by facts. They introduce the personal viewpoint identifier (PVI) to identify these mind-sets and what to say to them.