I’ve heard and read about the problem with cooking stoves in the developing world, but I’ve never considered the complex social and economic issues behind attempts to alleviate it. At last week’s Rose Cafe, Prof. Blalock began the discussion by asking us several questions – do we care about the sustainability issues? What kind of cars do we have? If we care about the environment, then why don’t we all drive Priuses (Prii?) or Teslas?

It became clear that social and economic issues stand in the way of people owning environmentally-friendly vehicles. Even logistical issues like family size came into play; one girl said that she has a big family that wouldn’t even be able to fit in a Prius.

Prof. Blalock then told us that the same types of issues are relevant for the cooking stove debacle. He had worked on a long project to convince people in Uganda to choose cooking stoves that are better for their health and the environment. Unfortunately, people don’t tend to embrace change immediately. Prof. Blalock said that only a small fraction of people decided to give the better stove a chance. More importantly, however, even the people who decided to buy the better stove ultimately didn’t embrace longterm change. When Prof. Blalock went back to Uganda four years later, they had stopped using the better stove.

The talk ended on a slightly depressing note, but the takeaway is this: if we want people to commit to using a new product, we can’t simply consider the cost and design. We need to consider social norms, economic barriers, and a slew of other issues as well.