SUST FINAL REVIEW QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

SUST FINAL REVIEW QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 Leisure Time - Answers^^Leisure Time ▪ Leisure time is time spend not working and not engaged in sustenance activities (eating, sleeping, etc). ▪ As individuals and as a society, we face choices between working more and taking more leisure time. ▪ We should rationally balance our work and leisure time to maximize our utility. ▪ Each person will have a different relative value of leisure time vs working to support the consumption of goods and services Standard Work Time - Answers^Industrial Revolution Average Industrial Working Hours ~70 hours per week Workers earned only enough for a very meager existence Had very little leisure time ^ Early 1900s Through the 19th century and early 20th century workers movements (unions) pushed for an 8 hour day and weekends off work Wages increased to allow for a comfortable living with these hours ^ 6 Hour Work Day With basic needs met, there was a continued union push in the 1920s for establishing a 6 hour work day plus weekends (30hrs/week) During the great depression, the gov't supported reduced working hours to try to spread employment out. ^"In the 21st century a 15-hour week will suffice, as we turn instead to how to use freedoms from pressing economic cares" John Maynard Keynes, 1930 Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren Wait, 15 hour work week... What Happened? ^^Recall the Notion of Preference Governments Interests in Increased Consumption - Answers^With a fairly closed economy, the federal government and producers of the early 20th century worried that without increased demand among the middle and working classes, the economy would stagnate. Most things consumed in the usa was produced in the usa Both the US government and US Corporations saw benefits in accelerating the growth of consumption among the masses. ^ Government and Consumption Gov has an incentive to push consumption, the economy could flattened in ppl dont shop Corporate Interests in Increased Consumption ^^ How to Accelerate Consumer Demand? - Answers^ Corporations and Consumption More money for big corporate pig om nom ^^ How to Accelerate Consumer Demand? 1. Increase pay for working class, but push back against reduced working hours - More money to buy stuff with 2. Improve access to credit 3. Planned Obsolescence 4. Advertising Increase Pay ^Increase Access to Credit Once they go into debt then they have to work more Psychological Obsolescence - Answers^^Planned Psychological and Physical Obsolescence While the idea of changing fashions existed for the upper classes for a small number of products (clothes mostly) most products were 'lifetime' products - pots and pans for example were often multi-generational. Producers and retailers realized that it would be difficult to maintain demand with that approach and as such sought to shorten the psychological and physical lifespan of products. Psychological new car or clothes goes out of style is 3 years, creating need to replace things that are still useful because of social pressure Physical Obsolescence - AnswersPhysical tech break after 3 years forcing you to buy another Repairability Used to be really easy but now adays everything have special screws, cant fix it yourself, some people dont even sell the parts A lot of thing is recharges or refills instead of being able to use for ever Misconsumption - Answers^^ Misconsumption Significant Misconsumption - Individual consumes in such a manner that it undermines his/her own well-being (sub- optimal consumption). In most cases at present, it is people consuming more goods and services than they should (and working and/or going into debt more than they should). Buying things and they regretting afterwards because couldn't afford Individual level Overconsumption - AnswersSignificant Overconsumption - Too much is being consumed (in aggregate) to be sustained leading to catastrophe for species unless something changes Societital level Persuasion - Answers^^ Persuasion ▪ Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding another person to changing their beliefs or preferences. ▪ Persuasion is intentional 'socialization' Corporation 1 ??? - Answers^^Incentive Based Paths (ALREADY COVERED) There are different ways you change your behaviour depending on your friend group or family because of social punishment You could hate something but you are forced to agree because of social punishment, someone who doesn't believe in climate change gets solar panels because of carbon tax ^^Paths of Persuasion (High Cognitive Path) Low Cognition - Answers^^Low Cognition When Factors OTHER THAN logic of argument are used to persuade someone often taking advantage of our heuristics and our emotions. Such as: ▪ Emotional forms of engagement that disengage skepticism/mistrust using humour, fear, excitement, etc. ▪ Characteristics of the Messenger (authority, pop artists, etc) ▪ Taking advantage of our fears and hopes regarding 'Social Identity' and 'status' - Use something called 'Descriptive Norm Messaging' to define what is normal and desirable High Cognition - Answers^^High Cognition ▪Challenge old and new belief/preference(B/P) through comparing strengths/logic of argument ▪Encourages high effort (high cognition) process by targeted individual to consider. ▪Change in B/P occurs when convinced by fact based argument overcome currently held B/P Using data and facts to convince something to become vaccinated Cognitive Dissonance - AnswersCognitive dissonance is the psychological discomfort experienced when holding two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or behaviors simultaneously. Developed byLeon Festinger, this theory explains that people are motivated to reduce this mental tension by changing behaviors, justifying beliefs, or ignoring conflicting information. There are different ways you change your behaviour depending on your friend group or family because of social punishment You could hate something but you are forced to agree because of social punishment, someone who doesn't believe in climate change gets solar panels because of carbon tax Social Identity (also known as self-identity) - Answers^^Social/Self Identity Ideal Self - Consumption Benefits Real Self is stuck in-between Failed Self - Non- Consumption Costs/Risks ^^Social/Self Identity and Consumption ▪ Decisions to make purchases are part of an attempt to find meaning, status, and identity (results in misconsumption) ▪ Such decisions are heavily influenced by the cultural environment (of which advertising is a part) ▪ Products are no longer sold by Advertisers, instead lifestyles are sold, with products/brands acting as conduits to the lifestyle. Commercial Marketing - AnswersAdvertising use this to try and align their product with your ideal self ▪ Products are no longer sold by Advertisers, instead lifestyles are sold, with products/brands acting as conduits to the lifestyle. Conspicuous consumption - Answers^Veblen ▪ In 1899, in his study of the wealthy class, Veblen coined the term Conspicuous Consumption ▪ Conspicuous Consumption is consumption that the primary intent is based upon a goal of gaining status. Trying to impress or get ahead of other people ▪ He found that a large part of the expenditure of the wealthy classes was entirely focused on status. How is conspicuous consumption an Institution? You can never stop consuming because it will never be enough ^Everyday 'Conspicuous' Consumption and Identity Conspicuous consumption is not just about being at the top of the status hierarchy, it is about fitting in and not falling in status In many ways, we have created a cruel game that pushes and rewards consumption Social Marketing - Answers^^Status Seeking ▪Focus of members of society then becomes maintaining and enhancing status •Problem: Status is a Zero Sum Game so at a societal level economic growth may be doing nothing to improve total 'happiness' and in fact may be reducing it through encouraging misconsumption and overconsumption "We've recently learned that Visa has taken out patents to market its transaction information for targeted advertising by combining it with information from social networking websites, credit bureaus, search engines, wish lists." Canadian Privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. Injunctive Norm - Answers^ Early Efforts at Social Marketing ▪ Much of it involved High Cognition - A lot of marketing seeking to explain 'facts' ^^ ▪ Low Cognition Marketing involved mostly Injunctive Norm Messaging - Telling someone else how they SHOULD behave ▪ "Everyone should recycle" its "The right thing to do" ▪ ...often with an unintended message that says, but most people do the wrong thing. Unintentional message is everyone litters and ppl like being in the norm ▪ Limited effectiveness in changing behaviour - Tragedy of the Commons affect leads to self interest often over-riding 'moral' message about doing the right thing. Descriptive Norm - Answers^ Recent Approaches to Social Marketing ▪ Has increasingly adopted 'Low Cognition' tactics ▪ Often employs 'Social Identity' fears and 'Descriptive norm messaging' to make good environmental behaviour desirable and environmentally harmful behaviour undesirable. ^^ ▪ Descriptive norm messaging is an effort to 'Normalize' good behaviour and denormalize the behaviour you are trying to stop. In others generating a sense that the 'normal' and/or desirable state is one which involves the promoted behaviour (smoking is an area where this has been used a lot). ▪ They also use things like Humour, sex, celebrity etc. in the same way that commercial marketers do. ^Descriptive Messages ▪ Identifying what others are doing & using self concern about 'fitting in' as a means to influence behaviour ▪ More powerful than using injunctive norms alone Try to draw you upwards, you could still do better Wicked Problems - Answers^ Wicked Problems and Complex Systems This is where one solution can bring other problems Many different stake holder, unclear what to do Path Dependency - Answers^^ Path Dependency (Change is Hard) ▪ Path dependence is the idea that decisions we are faced with depend on past knowledge trajectory and decisions made, in other words, history matters ▪ Societal institutions have 'momentum' and significant change takes a great deal of effort and time to achieve. ▪ All of the institutions we have established have momentum and just because we are aware of new issues - such as environmental issues - it does not mean that we can quickly adapt to change them. Once you are on a path it is hard to change, we replicate what we have done already Material Dependencies - Answers^^ Material Dependencies People who might want to change from car oriented is stopped by this There is already so much infrastructure for cars, the physical structure, billions of dollars Cultural Dependencies - Answers^^ Cultural Dependencies Culture thinks that the bus is what you do if you can't afford a car Formal Institutional Dependencies - Answers^ Formal Institutional Dependencies Our regulation as grown up with automobiles being central People banning street hockey because it blocks the road ppl cant drive through, auto oriented, now you cant even just walk across the road to talk to neighbor Literally banning people blocking the roads Denial Machine (From video) - AnswersBasically everyone wors to deny global warming because it doesnt fit their political agenda Politics - AnswersPolitics ˈpä-lə- tiksˌ ▪ activities that relate to influencing the actions and policies of a government or getting and keeping power in a government ▪ the work or job of people (such as elected officials) who are part of a government ▪ the opinions that someone has about what should be done by governments : a person's political thoughts and opinions Stakeholders - Answers^^ Stakeholders, Interests and Power ▪Stakeholders include all individuals, groups, etc. that are impacted by or who take an active interest in a policy decision ▪Most issues involves multiple stakeholders, often with competing interests (stakes). ▪What are some examples of Stakeholder 'interest' ▪Stakeholders have different types and levels of political power Interests - AnswersConcept of Political 'Interest' (who is a stakeholder) Capping the oil sands and lowing productions Efforts to increase densities of people in cities so more ppl = more money People who live near are negatively affected or positively, also city as a whole Political Power - Answers^^ Who has power? - what are sources of power? Elon funded trumps presidency and bought twitter, social popularity Organizing as a collective, knowledge is a type of power you can make stronger arguments, authority that comes with a title people respect you more Why do stakeholders seek power? ▪Stakeholders (individuals, companies, elected officials, countries, etc) may seek power for any number of reasons, most of which fall under one of these broad reasons: ▪ To benefit themselves by increasing their power, their rights, their condition (quality of life, market competitiveness, etc) or their wealth. ▪ To benefit those they perceive as allies or members of a group with which they perceive themselves to be a part of ▪ To improve the overall public good Politicians - AnswersPoliticians Politicians ▪What do you think motivates politicians? Motivated in public interest Even if we disagree most prob believe that their policies will benefit society as a whole Other things could be beliefs in their own values, I want to keep my job so i continue to make influence on outcomes Public - AnswersThe Public Not always effective ^^ Direct Citizen Influence Bike lanes, most people do not like them, misinformation but gov still push them But most of the time what the people want should be put in office Placebo Policies - AnswersGroup Divisions & Dividing Groups... ▪ We sometimes see groups that have shared interests such as: ▪ Ethnic, Cultural, or Religious groups ▪ Economic Income Classes ▪ Employment Groups (private/public, white/blue collar, etc) ▪ Age Groups (e.g. Boomers vs Gen Z) ▪ Rural vs Urban ▪ and many others ▪ Other stakeholders (Politicians, Corporate Interests, Environmental Advocates, etc) will sometimes create and/or enhance those divisions for political gain. "Placebo policies" refers to government actions designed to create the appearance of tackling a tough problem, without actually addressing its root causes . These performative measures, often termed a "policy trap" solution, help politicians show they are "doing something" when they lack the resources or political will for genuine change. NGO - AnswersEnvironmental NGOs and activists (Civil Society) ^^ Sustainability/Environmental NGOs Key Activities: ▪ Undertake Public Persuasion through Advocacy (media engagement, political persuasion, protest) ▪ Act as Watchdog (on industry, government, on environmental initiatives such as eco labeling, public awareness) ▪ Fund Research that supports Position ▪ Lobbies Government Rising Power of NGOs Budgets ▪ Budget of Greenpeace (including national offices) of about US$400 million and 15,000+ volunteers ▪ Budget of WWF (including national orgs) is about US$750 million Protest Direct Lobbying - Answers^^ Direct Lobbying