Page 16 - Packaging News magazine November-December 2022

WOMEN IN PACKAGING
Champions of change speak out
At the PKN Women in Packaging event held in Melbourne, women who are walking the talk in sustainable packaging shared stories and voiced their views to a receptive audience. Colleen Bate reports.
WELCOMING DELEGATES TO the bright, open space that is the Conversation Quarter at State Library Victoria, PKN publisher Lindy Hughson drove home the value of nur- turing a solid, supportive, inclusive community for women in packaging, and noted that the PKN Women in Packaging event, which was sold out this year, is growing from strength to strength with strong industry support.
SONIA FRIEDRICH
The afternoon kicked off with key- note speaker, behavioural science strategist Sonia Friedrich, looking at the ways to change consumer behav- iour, and providing insight into the latest in research design to tap into the consumer unconscious response. She outlined the predictable way the human brain responds and makes decisions, and what that means for brands as well as the impacts on sustainability. Her dis- cussion looked at human behaviour, how the unconscious can hinder rather than help, the perception of our present ver- sus future selves, the need for immediate gratification, the reward and delay reward, and how loss aversion influences choice.
“Short cuts in our brain led to cogni- tive errors and if we repeat them over and over again they become habits and something we believe about our- selves,” said Friedrich, pointing out that, “Behavioural science proves that if there is a behaviour we want to change, we can change. What we are facing though is that we are human beings and hardwired to the status quo. We are hardwired to take the path of least resistance.”
Friedrich went on to explain how moral licensing plays a part in our behaviour – the idea that we have as a human being, if we have done some- thing good, we can do something bad, which in terms of recycling, may equate to the fact that since a person was really good at recycling yesterday they may believe that it’s ok not to recycle today.
“We need to start understanding where we are creating these behaviours and where it is happening in our worlds with your customers,” she said.
A barrier to changing human behav- iour is the fact that we can’t see ourselves in the long term, said Friedrich.
“Neuroscience has proven that my brain cannot see myself in five years. This is really important because a lot of us are trying to change behaviour for the long term. Which means that not one person you are speaking to under- stands who they are in the future. We
16 ❙ NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2022
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IMAGE CREDITS: ARIANNA LEGGIERO