Winnifred R. Louis
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Note. If you need some biographical information (e.g., for intros for a speaking engagement), please visit Winnifred's bio page.
My career goal is to work towards world peace. I originally studied to be a diplomat, but I soon questioned both the systems in which diplomats work and the theories of change that they use. I now choose this extremely fun academic career because it is stupendously interesting, and because I believe that we will not enjoy a socially just, sustainable, and peaceful world until we understand how group processes and intergroup relations influence human decision-making.
I studied psychology and socio-cultural anthropology for my undergraduate BSc from the University of Toronto, then completed an MSc and PhD on the social psychology of decision-making in conflict at McGill University, before coming to the University of Queensland in 2001 to work in the School of Psychology. I also am a lifelong activist, for example supporting peace, human rights, the environment, unions, survivors of sexual and domestic violence, and anti-racism.
I see my role as working towards positive social change through teaching, research and community engagement. I really enjoy mentoring of PhD and honours students, with the odd Masters student thrown in. I’m interested in working with groups and organisations to evaluate and improve their communications or programs, and to evaluate or improve interventions for behaviour change.
How do group identities and norms influence individuals’ attitudes and actions?
Have you ever wondered what makes social problems difficult, and why some situations and groups seem caught in problems that never get better? What factors could lead to a breakthrough? My work looks at these questions and proposes that social norms (standards or rules for behaviour) play strong, hidden roles that can trap people or suddenly free them to create mass social change.
My research is relevant to virtually all aspects of human decision-making, from health and environmental choices to collective action, discrimination, and peace. Without group processes and intergroup relations, we can rarely explain differences across cultures or time. With them, we can seek to explain and create swift mass change.
Getting a GRIP on social change: understanding why campaigns succeed or fail
I am currently passionate about trying to communicate on how to create change effectively, and on why campaigns fail. In my model ‘Getting a GRIP’ I highlight that organisations and leaders who are targeting unaligned people (vs trying to mobilise their own side) need to think about 1) addressing [GR]oups not individuals (otherwise they fail to realise their target audiences’ lack of trust and openness, which is caused by group differences and conflict); 2) crafting [I]nclusive messages that convey that the individuals in the target audience in fact share important values and identities with the persuasive source; and 3) prioritising a clear message about the [P]ositive change, rather than just stressing the prevalence of the problem in the present.
Norms in flux: how competing social norms affect everyday life and collective action
My work is focused on the importance of norms, and the processes involved in norm change. My early work showed that individuals’ cost-benefit analyses were informed by group norms and changed by group identities, for example showing that individuals could learn to value self-sacrifice as personally beneficial when they identified with the group that their sacrifice serves. My next work showed that clashes between two types of norms, what other people do (descriptive norms) and what they say should be done (injunctive norms) uniquely affect decisions. In particular, I showed that when messages stress that a problem behaviour is common and shouldn’t be done, this not only usually fails to motivate people but also often de-motivates them (a backlash). More recently I am examining the way that we integrate the multiple groups that we belong to: how conflict among our own different ingroups’ norms can motivate some and de-motivate others; how a new norm becomes internalised over time as our own ‘self-determined’ motivation; and how the success and failure of our group affects our future choices and identities.
Euthanasia and Voluntary Assisted Dying
One very interesting new grant that I am working on with colleagues is a project on practitioners, Voluntary Assisted Dying, and euthanasia. This is an ARC Discovery that seeks to assess the role of norms and empathy in motivating health practitioners to support Voluntary Assisted Dying, or oppose it, and to motivate veterinarians to support euthanasia, or oppose it, under different conditions. The grant also seeks to track the outcomes for practitioners, and to provide a more solid evidence base to inform concerns such as the possibility of changes to job satisfaction and turnover; distress, sensitisation, and mental health concerns; or desensitisation, empathic blunting, and a blurring of the sense of the sacredness of life.
For this grant, we are hoping to maintain a facebook page to inform community members about the progress of the research. Our first steps are online here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Educational-Research-Center/RIVAD-Research-into-Voluntary-Assisted-Dying-103705567768379/ .
Get in touch
Winnifred is always happy to speak about her research. Potential speaking topics include:
Articles written by Winnifred for the Social Change Blog:
If you’re interested in having Winnifred speak at an event or collaborating on research, please get in touch. If you need some biographical information about Winnifred at short notice, please visit her bio page. Further information about being supervised by Winnifred Louis for PhD or Honours research, or joining the lab as a volunteer, is outlined on the Contact page.
My career goal is to work towards world peace. I originally studied to be a diplomat, but I soon questioned both the systems in which diplomats work and the theories of change that they use. I now choose this extremely fun academic career because it is stupendously interesting, and because I believe that we will not enjoy a socially just, sustainable, and peaceful world until we understand how group processes and intergroup relations influence human decision-making.
I studied psychology and socio-cultural anthropology for my undergraduate BSc from the University of Toronto, then completed an MSc and PhD on the social psychology of decision-making in conflict at McGill University, before coming to the University of Queensland in 2001 to work in the School of Psychology. I also am a lifelong activist, for example supporting peace, human rights, the environment, unions, survivors of sexual and domestic violence, and anti-racism.
I see my role as working towards positive social change through teaching, research and community engagement. I really enjoy mentoring of PhD and honours students, with the odd Masters student thrown in. I’m interested in working with groups and organisations to evaluate and improve their communications or programs, and to evaluate or improve interventions for behaviour change.
How do group identities and norms influence individuals’ attitudes and actions?
Have you ever wondered what makes social problems difficult, and why some situations and groups seem caught in problems that never get better? What factors could lead to a breakthrough? My work looks at these questions and proposes that social norms (standards or rules for behaviour) play strong, hidden roles that can trap people or suddenly free them to create mass social change.
My research is relevant to virtually all aspects of human decision-making, from health and environmental choices to collective action, discrimination, and peace. Without group processes and intergroup relations, we can rarely explain differences across cultures or time. With them, we can seek to explain and create swift mass change.
Getting a GRIP on social change: understanding why campaigns succeed or fail
I am currently passionate about trying to communicate on how to create change effectively, and on why campaigns fail. In my model ‘Getting a GRIP’ I highlight that organisations and leaders who are targeting unaligned people (vs trying to mobilise their own side) need to think about 1) addressing [GR]oups not individuals (otherwise they fail to realise their target audiences’ lack of trust and openness, which is caused by group differences and conflict); 2) crafting [I]nclusive messages that convey that the individuals in the target audience in fact share important values and identities with the persuasive source; and 3) prioritising a clear message about the [P]ositive change, rather than just stressing the prevalence of the problem in the present.
Norms in flux: how competing social norms affect everyday life and collective action
My work is focused on the importance of norms, and the processes involved in norm change. My early work showed that individuals’ cost-benefit analyses were informed by group norms and changed by group identities, for example showing that individuals could learn to value self-sacrifice as personally beneficial when they identified with the group that their sacrifice serves. My next work showed that clashes between two types of norms, what other people do (descriptive norms) and what they say should be done (injunctive norms) uniquely affect decisions. In particular, I showed that when messages stress that a problem behaviour is common and shouldn’t be done, this not only usually fails to motivate people but also often de-motivates them (a backlash). More recently I am examining the way that we integrate the multiple groups that we belong to: how conflict among our own different ingroups’ norms can motivate some and de-motivate others; how a new norm becomes internalised over time as our own ‘self-determined’ motivation; and how the success and failure of our group affects our future choices and identities.
Euthanasia and Voluntary Assisted Dying
One very interesting new grant that I am working on with colleagues is a project on practitioners, Voluntary Assisted Dying, and euthanasia. This is an ARC Discovery that seeks to assess the role of norms and empathy in motivating health practitioners to support Voluntary Assisted Dying, or oppose it, and to motivate veterinarians to support euthanasia, or oppose it, under different conditions. The grant also seeks to track the outcomes for practitioners, and to provide a more solid evidence base to inform concerns such as the possibility of changes to job satisfaction and turnover; distress, sensitisation, and mental health concerns; or desensitisation, empathic blunting, and a blurring of the sense of the sacredness of life.
For this grant, we are hoping to maintain a facebook page to inform community members about the progress of the research. Our first steps are online here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Educational-Research-Center/RIVAD-Research-into-Voluntary-Assisted-Dying-103705567768379/ .
Get in touch
Winnifred is always happy to speak about her research. Potential speaking topics include:
- Psychology of decision-making in conflict
- Effective persuasion in group conflict
- Using normative messages to create change
Articles written by Winnifred for the Social Change Blog:
- The social change lab: 2019 and beyond!
- Understanding social movements and social transformations: Third time lucky
- The Social Change Lab: 2018 and beyond
- Second steps towards understanding social movements and social transformation
- Social movements and social transformation: Understanding the challenges and the breakthroughs
- The Social Change Lab: 2017 and beyond
- Making political change happen
- Effective communication for social change
- The seven deadly sins of statistical misinterpretation and how to avoid them
- 5 reasons activists engage in multiple causes
If you’re interested in having Winnifred speak at an event or collaborating on research, please get in touch. If you need some biographical information about Winnifred at short notice, please visit her bio page. Further information about being supervised by Winnifred Louis for PhD or Honours research, or joining the lab as a volunteer, is outlined on the Contact page.
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