Trend research: Stephan Grünewald in an interview with DIE ZEIT
Hardly any object like the plastic bag has been socially outlawed faster. How did this happen? An interview with trend researcher Stephan Grünewald.
The interview appeared on Zeit Online on July 13, 2018.
Which is worse: buying a pack of cigarettes at the supermarket checkout or a plastic bag?
In the case of cigarettes, at any rate, you will find more like-minded people. Besides, smokers already have a long process of taboo behind them. In the case of plastic bags, everything was far more eruptive.
Why did it happen so quickly with the bag?
Such collective behavioral changes presuppose images that have an iconographic effect and therefore evoke a change in consciousness. In the case of BSE, it was the staggering and dying cows; in the case of the bags, it was the perishing fish and seabirds. When I recently spent my vacation in Crete, I saw hundreds of thousands of plastic bags sloshing around in the sea. At that moment, I sensed that something significant was going on.
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The interview was conducted by Marcus Rohwetter.
Cologne-based psychologist Stephan Grünewald is the founder of the market and media research institute rheingold. Grünewald became a bestselling author with his books "Deutschland auf der Couch" (2006) and "Die erschöpfte Gesellschaft" (2013) as well as "Wie tickt Deutschland" (2019).
Phone: +49 221-466 828 0
E-mail: gruenewald@rheingold-online.de
