Is Habitat Press Making a Difference?
George Orwell proclaimed that writers write to ‘change the world’ and we have evidence that he might be right.
Below we list four of our publications and links to research showing how they influenced behaviours in readers.
If you have been influenced by any of our books or as writer or attendee of a Green Stories workshop, let us know and you’ll get a free mini anthology to download as a thank you. Readers click here for impact survey and writers/other click here.
Case Study of Habitat Man
Results from a study by researchers at the University of Southampton and Dr. Nicolosi from the University of Utah indicate that reading an eco-themed rom-com can result in changes of behaviour.
Study: 50 readers were offered £25/$35 to read Habitat Man and answer a survey one month after reading the novel. They also provided feedback on the impacts it had in their own words.
Results indicate that readers followed up on many of the tips embedded in the story: 98% changed their attitudes and 60% had adopted at least one green alternative. For example, in the story, the protagonist discovers a body when he’s digging a pond. One scene featured a natural burial and inspired many readers to write in saying they had changed their will to ensure a natural burial. They hadn’t realised just how toxic traditional burials are to the ecosystem.
For more details see https://www.dabaden.com/habitat-man-in-research/
Baden, D, Jarrett, J, Nicolosi, E (under review). No More Preaching to the Converted. Using a Rom-com to Engage Readers in Pro-environmental Behaviour. Environmental Communication.
Baden, D. (2023). Readers’ Emulation of Green Behaviours in Fiction: A Case Study of Habitat Man. Sustainable Innovation: Accelerating Sustainability in the Creative Economy and Creative Industries.
If reading Habitat Man changed your attitudes, beliefs or behaviours, please let us know here. We’d love to hear from you and you’ll get a free mini anthology to download as a thank you.
No More Fairy Tales: Stories to Save Our Planet
Climate experts teamed with experienced writers such as Kim Stanley Robinson and Paolo Bacigalupi to create an anthology of 24 short stories, each with climate solutions at their heart.
Each story and each climate solution links to webpages where readers can follow up on any solutions that inspire them to see how they can help to make them happen.
The anthology was also shared with policy makers at COP27 and COP28.
If any of the stories in No More Fairy Tales: Stories to Save Our Planet changed your attitudes, beliefs or behaviours, please let us know here.
We’d love to hear from you and you’ll get a free mini anthology to download as a thank you.
The Assassin: Case study of play adaptation
This novella imagines eight people in a citizens’ assembly debating climate policies and then there’s a murder!
A script version won the 2024 Writing Climate Pitchfest and it was also adapted into a play ‘Murder in the Citizens’ Jury’. It had a sell-out run by an amateur theatre company in Sept 2024 and the British Academy funded a Q&A and study to determine the impacts on audiences who were encouraged to choose their favourite climate policy.
You can see how it created debate and raised awareness of key climate policies in this short video.
If you were influenced by the play or novella version, please let us know here, and get a free mini anthology to download as a thank you.
Survey results and feedback from audiences on how it affected their beliefs and practices is here.
Stories from the Microbial World: Impacts on readers
This anthology presents 23 short stories selected from winning stories from the Green Stories competition ‘Microbes to the Rescue’ and the ‘Clean vs Green’ competitions.
The goal is to use fiction to tackle myths and misconceptions about bacteria. A study* of 77 readers found that environmental messages embedded into a short story significantly changed behavioural intentions in readers in the field of cleaning, laundry and personal care.
Readers reported gaining knowledge from the stories, in terms of the specific products and practices that one could undertake and with respect to the misconception that aggressive cleaning practices in the home (e.g., high temperatures, strong chemicals) are beneficial to human health.
If any of the stories in Stories from the Microbial Worl changed your attitudes, beliefs or behaviours, please let us know here, and get a free mini anthology to download as a thank you.
* McIlroy, R. C., Baden, D. A., Brown, J., Gauthier, S. M., Swierczynski, J., & Wilks, S. A. (2024). Clean vs green: the impact of reading short stories on sustainable and healthy cleaning behaviours. Discover Sustainability, 5(1), 356.
Research into how readers respond to climate fiction
Baden, D. and J. Brown: (2024) ‘Climate Fiction to Inspire Green Actions: Tales from Two Authors ‘, In Wang, H. and E. Coren (Eds.), Story telling to Accelerate Climate Solutions (Springer, Cham, Switzerland).
Townend, I., Baden, D., Baker, J., Buermann, J., Dawson, I., Dbouk, W., … & Wanick, V. (in press) Anticipating Futures: Understanding the Fundamental Importance of Narratives Through an Integrative Interdisciplinary Approach.
McIlroy, R. C., Baden, D. A., Brown, J., Gauthier, S. M., Swierczynski, J., & Wilks, S. A. (2024). Clean vs green: the impact of reading short stories on sustainable and healthy cleaning behaviours. Discover Sustainability, 5(1), 356.
Baden, Denise. “Books that shook the business world: The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken.” The Conversation (2024).
Baden, Denise. Five fiction books to inspire climate action The Conversation (2024).
Baden, D. (2023). The Role of Fictional Characters in Consumer Culture. Online. https://cfsd.org.uk/events/sustainable-innovation-2023/
Baden, D. (2023). Readers’ Emulation of Green Behaviours in Fiction: A Case Study of Habitat Man. Online. https://cfsd.org.uk/events/sustainable-innovation-2023/
Baden, D. (2023). Thrutopia: a fictional roadmap to a sustainable society. Paper presented at the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, UK and Ireland, Biennial Conference, University of Liverpool.
Baden, D.: 2020, ‘Which work best? Cautionary tales or positive role models?‘, In Molthan-hill, P., H. Luna and D. Baden (Eds.), Storytelling for Sustainability in Higher Education: An Educator’s Handbook (Routledge, Abingdon).
Baden, D. (2019). Solution focused stories are more effective than catastrophic stories in motivating pro-environmental intentions. Ecopsychology, 11(4).
Baden, D. (2018). Environmental storytelling can help spread big ideas for saving the planet. The Conversation.
Baden, D., Pearson, N, “Culture and climate: Does it matter how fictional characters behave?” submitted to Mass Communication and Society.
Baden D, Jarrett J: “No More Preaching to the Converted. Using a rom-com to engage readers in pro-environmental behaviours” Submitted to Environmental Communication.
Creative Climate Communications Newsletter
You can read more about publications and projects that use creative means to engage mainstream audiences in sustainable practices and climate polices in the monthly Linked-In newsletter, Creative Climate Communications
You can also keep informed about new books, events and updates here.
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