Coming Together to Light Up the Darkness: Some News About Our 2021 World Conference Theme 

It has been such a difficult year, for all of us, all around the world. For those of you who have lost someone; for those on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic; for those of you who are worn out from fighting against marginalization and oppression; for those of you who have been displaced or struggling due to fires or floods set in motion by our climate crisis; for those of you who are weary, and stressed, and suffering, may you be safe; may you have health; may you experience kindness; may you know peace.

Each year, we come together as a community at the ACBS World Conference to celebrate our connections to one another, to revel in our scientific advances, to gain skills such that we can help to alleviate suffering. In 2021, our World Conference will be online, and we will connect in the virtual world – despite our distance, despite our struggles, we will find a way to be together. And in our gathering, we will light the way for each other to begin to heal; through our sharing of ideas and rigorous science, we will light the way for us to cultivate kinder, more equitable, more nurturing relationships with ourselves and with one another.

It is time for contextual behavioral science to shine its light in the darkness. Our technology for behavior change is exactly what we need right now to inform best practices for shifting to a more sustainable and just world. It is clear that the strength of a community can be measured by the collective actions of its members. Transforming current ways of living and creating a world in which our planet and its inhabitants are shielded from further harm requires shared strategic planning and community-level commitment. However, we are used to working at the level of the individual and of small groups; we are more comfortable addressing mental health than focusing on shaping a more just and sustainable philosophy – and practice – of living.

It is time to scale up our science and its applications and capitalize on interdisciplinary collaborations with evolutionary science, technology, economics, public health, and policy advocacy such that we can bring our work to bear in the larger world to address issues of discrimination, racism, health disparities, overconsumption of our natural resources, and our behavioral impact on the climate. Where there is division, we can sow nurturance and fairness; where there is lack of regard for our interrelationship with the natural world, we can amplify awareness and evaluate best practices for collective committed actions that will leave our home better than we found it for generations to come.

Thus, the theme for this year’s conference is Broadening Our Vision: Using CBS to Nurture a Just and Sustainable World. This is meant to encourage ACBS to broaden our vision such that we shift our scientific and practical focus from behavior change at an individual level to a population level; that we evaluate best practices to amend disparities and divisions to create prosociality and cooperation; that we widen our perspective from individuals’ psychological well-being to consider how our science might inform public policy; that we embed our behavioral science within efforts to address the climate crisis – to create a more just and nurturing world for all of us. 

- Dr. Lisa Coyne, ACBS President