It was great to go to a Rose Café where Professor Blalock himself was presenting. I didn’t know anything about his research before the café, and I found it to be really engaging.

At first, I was a bit confused as to why he chose to start the discussion by questioning us about why we don’t own more fuel efficient cars. I don’t think it was at all intended to be so, but I found his tone to be slightly accusatory. This confusion quickly diffused as he transitioned into discussing his research, and it became clear that he started the hour the way that he did to show us that problems with adopting better technologies exist in the US just as much as in developing nations. I appreciated that he did this, because it forced us to recognize the fact that we aren’t immune to these problems, and it made the cookstove discussion more relatable.

Professor Blalock’s work with cookstoves in Uganda make it painfully clear why changes in people’s behavior are so hard to implement. When trying to get people to adopt new technologies, we often assume that if the benefit of technologies are explained, people will quickly adjust their lives to include it. Professor Blalock’s research, however, showed that habits and social norms can be much stronger than education when it comes to behavioral change.