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Exploring the “Energy-Saving Personality Traits” in the Office and Household Situation: An Empirical Study

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Listed:
  • Qian-Cheng Wang

    (Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9EP, UK
    These authors contributed equally to this study.)

  • Yi-Xuan Wang

    (Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 518000, China
    These authors contributed equally to this study.)

  • Izzy Yi Jian

    (Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 518000, China
    Research Institute of Sustainable Urban Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 518000, China
    These authors contributed equally to this study.)

  • Hsi-Hsien Wei

    (Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 518000, China)

  • Xuan Liu

    (Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 518000, China)

  • Yao-Tian Ma

    (Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PX, UK)

Abstract

Behavior-driven energy conservation has been a promising strategy for reducing building energy consumption as well as carbon emissions. With the intention of revealing the impacts of an individual’s personality basis on energy conservation behavioral attitudes and intentions in households and offices, the present study proposes and conducts an experiment in Xi’an, China with two groups for the investigation of such attitudes towards household energy-saving behavior (HESB) and office energy-saving behavior (OESB), respectively. The research adopts structural equation modeling for experiment data analysis. The analysis results suggest that the two personality traits, Agreeableness and Neuroticism, are significantly related to both HESB and OESB attitudes. Especially, agreeable people tend to present stronger energy-saving attitudes, while individuals with higher Neuroticism are less likely to do so. The results indicate that the impacts of these two traits on energy-saving attitude are found to be less influenced by different environment settings. Further, the results find that Extraversion positively influences energy-saving attitude in the office environment, while Openness only significantly works in the household environment. It is hoped that the findings of the present study can provide informative references to energy-saving intervention design as well as further studies on the spillover of pro-environmental behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Qian-Cheng Wang & Yi-Xuan Wang & Izzy Yi Jian & Hsi-Hsien Wei & Xuan Liu & Yao-Tian Ma, 2020. "Exploring the “Energy-Saving Personality Traits” in the Office and Household Situation: An Empirical Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:14:p:3535-:d:382200
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    References listed on IDEAS

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