Accelerating the Adoption of Climate Change Prevention and Adaptation Measures: The Use of Opinion Leader Strategies Do Kyun Kim, Ph.D & Edward Maibach, Ph.D

Topics 1.The basis for why and how opinion leaders are influential; 2.The proven effectiveness of opinion leader strategies in other domains of society (e.g., AIDS prevention); 3.The potential to harness opinion leaders to promote climate change prevention and adaptation practices; & 4.Research needed to effectively scale-up opinion leaders interventions.

Diffusion of innovations A process in which an innovation is communicated through certain communication channels over time among the members of a social system. An Innovation?: Information, ideas, products, or practices that are perceived as new by an individual or a unit of adoption. How do we accelerate peoples adoption of climate change prevention and adaptation behavior?

Opinion Leader Defined A relatively small number of people in any community who are influential in their communities by virtue of both their perceived expertise and their friendly relationships with a large number of other people in their communities. In peoples informal and interpersonal communication networks, they play a critical role in determining the speed and success of diffusion of innovations in their communities.

Media Vs. Opinion Leaders Media as a source of information Opinion Leaders as a determinant of trustworthiness of information and implementation of climate change prevention and adaptation BEHAVIORS. Learning by Observation and Imitation of Opinion Leaders behaviors.

Identifying Opinion Leaders Social Network Analysis - Arrows indicate directions of communication between people and the thickness of the arrows indicates the different strengths of communication Mary Joe Tom Scott Bill David Kathy Kim John Ji m

Proven Effectiveness of Opinion Leader Strategy Effectiveness of opinion leader interventions (Atkins, Graczyk, Frazier, & Abdul-Adil, 2003; Elliott et al., 1997; Gifford et al., 1999; Guadagnoli, 2000; Hodnett et al., 1996; Lomas et al., 1991; Soumerai et al., 1998; Valente et al., 2003…etc.) - HIV/AIDS prevention information diffusion among risky groups, Medical knowledge diffusion among physicians, Technology diffusion among engineers, Business Marketing…etc. The validity and effectiveness of the opinion leadership measurement (Hiss, MacDonald, & Davis, 1978; Bhandari et al., 2003)

Potentials to harness Opinion Leaders Higher likelihood to bring BEHAVIORAL changes Higher persuasiveness (Cialdini et al., 1990; Fazio and Zanna, …) Cost effectiveness Methodological rigorousness and Realistic strategies (SNA)

A Direction for Future Studies Scaling-up!!!

OPINION LEADER DIFFUSION STRATEGY