How to Be a Better Human
How to Be a Better Human

How increasing your happiness can help solve climate change (w/ Jiaying Zhao and Elizabeth Dunn)

August 17, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Happiness Strategy for Climate Action

When University of British Columbia researchers Elizabeth Dunn and Jiaying Zhao first started talking, they seemed like an odd match. Dunn is a happiness researcher. Zhao is a climate behavioral scientist steeped in the doom-and-gloom narrative. "I have never heard the word climate change and happiness in one sentence," Zhao recalls. But that conversation sparked an insight that became the foundation of their book Leave the Lights On: the standard approach to climate action—emphasizing sacrifice, guilt, and shame—is fundamentally counterproductive. As Zhao puts it, "Those negative emotions are not conducive to long-term behavior change because they make us retreat and disengage."

Why Happiness Works Better Than Guilt

The core mechanism is straightforward and rooted in basic behavioral science. "Happiness is nature's reinforcer," Zhao explains. "If you do something and you feel happier, you're gonna do it again. You can do it more." This principle holds across species—it's how you train pets and children. Yet climate messaging has systematically ignored it, leaning instead on guilt, shame, anxiety, and anger.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Episode Introduction & The "Flossing" Problem** - Host Chris Duffy frames the episode’s core challenge: effective climate action feels like flossing—annoying and un-fun, even though it's incredibly beneficial.
  • 2 (02:54) **Introducing the Guests & Their Core Thesis** - Liz Dunn (happiness researcher) and Jiaying Zhao (climate behavioral scientist) are introduced, with a clip from Jiaying’s TED Talk explaining the problem with the "sacrifice" narrative.
  • 3 (08:08) **How the Collaboration Began** - Liz and Jiaying explain the origin of their partnership, sparked by a bike ride and a realization that sustainable actions can also be happiness-boosting.
  • 4 (10:38) **Why Happiness is Not a Cheapening of the Climate Issue** - The hosts argue that happiness is a powerful engine for action, not a distraction from the seriousness of climate change.
  • 5 (12:33) **Happiness as the First Principle of Behavior Change** - Jiaying reframes happiness as "nature's reinforcer," the fundamental mechanism that makes any behavior stick.
  • 6 (14:21) **Individual Action vs. Systemic Change: A False Dichotomy** - The guests argue that individual and systemic action are complementary, not in opposition, and that joyful individual choices can spark social movements.
  • 7 (16:04) **The Contagious Effect of Joyful Action** - The guests explain how one person's visible, happy sustainable choice influences others to copy them, creating a powerful ripple effect.

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Guests on this episode

Chris Duffy

Show Notes

The conversation around climate change is often bleak and terrifying, but it doesn’t have to be that way, says climate behavior scientist Jiaying Zhao, or JZ. In this episode, JZ and happiness researcher Elizabeth Dunn join Chris to discuss why we need to account for happiness in climate solutions. JZ and Elizabeth argue since happiness is contagious, making happiness-driven decisions go further in influencing behavioral change than fear-based tactics. They also talk about an anesthetic gas that releases more carbon than CO2 and why you should google if your bank is investing money in fossil fuels.


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