3+4PM USPS issues eco-stamps.

In the most recent offering of stamps, the USPS (not to be outgreened by anyone) has offered a series of fifteen stamps with environmental suggestions for little old you to do to help the big world. Among the suggestions: Now the funny thing about these 15 stamps is that they come in a sheet with sixteen squares, but the last square is just the title page, so to speak, not an actual stamp. So, they pretty obviously were one idea short of filling the page. Ironically missing from the list of suggestions is the fairly obvious eco-friendly suggestion, “Use email instead of sending a letter.”

But it also really hits on a fantastic bit of psychology recently uncovered in a few different stories I’ve read. People don’t do environmentalism so much because it’s just right, they do it because being seen as being green is both a great way to gain social approval and also atone for other moral failures. Yeah, people don’t just use recyclable bags because it’s “good.” They do it to be seen doing it. What other explanation could there be for the especially visible green totes? And it’s not as though stamps like this are likely to change behaviors. The real purpose? To show others that you support the cause, even with your stamps, or at least to feel yourself to be “doing something” when you put them on your letter. It’s such a wonderful example of “fad morality” in practice. I’m fascinated to watch it. If you dare, try telling someone at the organic grocery store that you think recycling is foolish. Just don’t tell them I said so.