Sustainability v/s the “yuck factor”

Sustainability is not just less GHG emissions, waste reduction and use of renewable energies. We don’t have to leave behind the human factor. Recalling on the three pillars of sustainability we must not forget that the social element pillar is essential. Well, in this social pillar, the human behavior plays a relevant role. The “yuck factor” is an example of how human behavior is related to sustainability.

But what is the “yuck factor”? The expression was invented in 1997 by Leon Kass, an American physician, scientist, educator, who defined it as “the wisdom of repugnance: the belief that an intuitive negative response to some thing, idea or practice should be interpreted as evidence for the intrinsically harmful or evil character of that thing”. In simple words, is the capacity to disgust, which causes us to reject things. But how a normal reaction of human beings, has become a problem for sustainability consumption? Because it makes us to generate more waste.

For example, when buying fruits and vegetables, we will choose the packed good looking ones rather than the unpacked odd-looking, or after seeing a television commercial that that super cleaner spot we will run to the store and buy it. The yuck factor acts as an illogical barrier to sustainable alternatives that are reasonably harmless, such as purified water, food made from insect proteins or medicine that have been reclaimed from sewage. Hence the “yuck factor” avoids us adopting the reduce,reuse,recycle mantra.

So the big challenge is to find ways to beat the yuck factor for trying to make our population live more sustainable. Research shows that behavioral science is the key. Some techniques that have been used with good results are: educating people for reappraising their responses and masking products in order to hide or reconstitute ingredients. Evidently this is a task that requires time, in some cultures it might be easy but others may show resistance to change.