‘Would you rather never again go to the mountains or never again go to the beach?’ At the height of pandemic curfews, that type of question with falsely mutually-exclusive options was a common family play around the dinner table. As the climate and general sustainability debate became part of our lives, we started asking ourselves questions like ‘would you rather never fly again or never eat meat again?’ Yes, these are false choices, but they often trigger a body response (that knot in the stomach) and an interesting conversation.
That’s the spirit behind The Sofa Activist, a prototype we’ve just developed. We want to help people to find out their sustainability preferences and ignite conversations about potential changes in lifestyle or investment decisions based on those preferences. Respondents go through 12 rounds of this ‘Battle of Statements’ which are randomly selected out of a database with more than 180 statements we developed based on sustainability data and studies. The ‘Battle’ is followed by a sorting exercise. And because the test is still a prototype, we ask respondents to provide feedback, so we can incorporate it in our next round of development.
And you, what do you care about? Find out your preferences here (no download required and no personal data asked!) and help us ignite more conversations around themes that might influence us all — if not already. As The Sofa Activist evolves, we also want it to help professionals such as financial advisors to know more about their clients and make recommendations that are based on people’s sustainability preferences in addition to their financial or risk profiles.
If you want to know more or be part of The Sofa Activist’s mission, get in touch via thesofaactivist@now-on.info. You can also follow @thesofaactivist on Instagram.
Authors: Jeronimo Souza and Paula Oliveira
