IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v158y2015icp35-43.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An experimental study on motivational change for electricity conservation by normative messages

Author

Listed:
  • Komatsu, Hidenori
  • Nishio, Ken-ichiro

Abstract

Although many attempts to promote energy conservation by information provision implicitly assume that receivers of information make rational decisions based on deliberation, outcomes have been less than expected. To address this problem, use of normative messages to inform customers how other customers are behaving is being investigated as a means of promoting energy conservation behaviors. However, it remains unclear how such interventions increase customers’ motivation to conserve electricity and which attributes of customers are most relevant. In this research, we conducted experiments using randomized controlled trials in Japan to investigate the effects of normative messages on motivational change for electricity conservation. The results show that normative messages significantly improved motivation for electricity conservation more than simple feedback did. We also investigated which types of respondents’ attributes, including personality traits, were most affected by the normative messages provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Komatsu, Hidenori & Nishio, Ken-ichiro, 2015. "An experimental study on motivational change for electricity conservation by normative messages," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 35-43.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:158:y:2015:i:c:p:35-43
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.08.029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915009551
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.08.029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertrand, Marianne & Karlan, Dean S. & Mullainathan, Sendhil & Shafir, Eldar & Zinman, Jonathan, 2005. "What's Psychology Worth? A Field Experiment in the Consumer Credit Market," Center Discussion Papers 28441, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Dean Karlan & Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir & Jonathan Zinman, 2010. "What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 263-306.
    3. Nilsson, Andreas & Bergstad, Cecilia Jakobsson & Thuvander, Liane & Andersson, David & Andersson, Kristin & Meiling, Pär, 2014. "Effects of continuous feedback on households’ electricity consumption: Potentials and barriers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 17-23.
    4. Ellegård, Kajsa & Palm, Jenny, 2011. "Visualizing energy consumption activities as a tool for making everyday life more sustainable," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(5), pages 1920-1926, May.
    5. Robinson, John B., 1991. "The proof of the pudding : Making energy efficiency work," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 631-645, September.
    6. Kempton, Willett & Montgomery, Laura, 1982. "Folk quantification of energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 7(10), pages 817-827.
    7. Krishnamurti, Tamar & Davis, Alexander L. & Wong-Parodi, Gabrielle & Wang, Jack & Canfield, Casey, 2013. "Creating an in-home display: Experimental evidence and guidelines for design," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 448-458.
    8. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9-10), pages 1082-1095, October.
    9. Vassileva, Iana & Odlare, Monica & Wallin, Fredrik & Dahlquist, Erik, 2012. "The impact of consumers’ feedback preferences on domestic electricity consumption," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 575-582.
    10. Noah J. Goldstein & Robert B. Cialdini & Vladas Griskevicius, 2008. "A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 472-482, March.
    11. Paul J. Ferraro & Michael K. Price, 2013. "Using Nonpecuniary Strategies to Influence Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 64-73, March.
    12. Hunt Allcott & Todd Rogers, 2014. "The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3003-3037, October.
    13. Palm, Jenny, 2010. "The public-private divide in household behavior: How far into home can energy guidance reach?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 2858-2864, June.
    14. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1082-1095.
    15. Robert M. Bond & Christopher J. Fariss & Jason J. Jones & Adam D. I. Kramer & Cameron Marlow & Jaime E. Settle & James H. Fowler, 2012. "A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization," Nature, Nature, vol. 489(7415), pages 295-298, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shen, Meng & Lu, Yujie & Wei, Kua Harn & Cui, Qingbin, 2020. "Prediction of household electricity consumption and effectiveness of concerted intervention strategies based on occupant behaviour and personality traits," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Spandagos, Constantine & Baark, Erik & Ng, Tze Ling & Yarime, Masaru, 2021. "Social influence and economic intervention policies to save energy at home: Critical questions for the new decade and evidence from air-condition use," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Singh, Kamini & Singh, Anoop, 2022. "Behavioural modelling for personal and societal benefits of V2G/V2H integration on EV adoption," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    4. Anderson, Kyle & Song, Kwonsik & Lee, SangHyun & Krupka, Erin & Lee, Hyunsoo & Park, Moonseo, 2017. "Longitudinal analysis of normative energy use feedback on dormitory occupants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 623-639.
    5. Guo, Zhifeng & Zhou, Kaile & Zhang, Chi & Lu, Xinhui & Chen, Wen & Yang, Shanlin, 2018. "Residential electricity consumption behavior: Influencing factors, related theories and intervention strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 399-412.
    6. 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.
    7. Botao Qin & Haoyan Chen, 2022. "Does the nudge effect persist? Evidence from a field experiment using social comparison message in China," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 689-703, July.
    8. Yijie Wang & Lei Xie & Shuang Li, 2022. "The Use of Intergroup Social Comparison in Promoting Water Conservation: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-14, June.
    9. Fei Wang & Liming Liu & Yili Yu & Gang Li & Jessica Li & Miadreza Shafie-khah & João P. S. Catalão, 2018. "Impact Analysis of Customized Feedback Interventions on Residential Electricity Load Consumption Behavior for Demand Response," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-22, March.
    10. Andor, Mark A. & Fels, Katja M., 2018. "Behavioral Economics and Energy Conservation – A Systematic Review of Non-price Interventions and Their Causal Effects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 178-210.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahsanuzzaman, & Eskander, Shaikh & Islam, Asad & Wang, Liang Choon, 2024. "Non-price energy conservation information and household energy consumption in a developing country: Evidence from an RCT," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Denis Hilton & Nicolas Treich & Gaetan Lazzara & Philippe Tendil, 2018. "Designing effective nudges that satisfy ethical constraints: the case of environmentally responsible behaviour," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 17(1), pages 27-38, November.
    3. Peters, Jörg & Langbein, Jörg & Roberts, Gareth, 2016. "Policy evaluation, randomized controlled trials, and external validity—A systematic review," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 51-54.
    4. Jason Delaney & Sarah Jacobson, 2016. "Payments or Persuasion: Common Pool Resource Management with Price and Non-price Measures," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(4), pages 747-772, December.
    5. Pinar Yildirim & Yanhao Wei & Christophe Bulte & Joy Lu, 2020. "Social network design for inducing effort," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 381-417, December.
    6. Mikolaj Czajkowski & Katarzyna Zagórska & Nick Hanley, 2018. "Social Norms and Pro-Environment Behaviours: Heterogeneous Response to Signals," Discussion Papers in Environment and Development Economics 2018-02, University of St. Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development.
    7. Sylvain Chabé-Ferret & Philippe Le Coent & Arnaud Reynaud & Julie Subervie & Daniel Lepercq, 2019. "Can we nudge farmers into saving water? Evidence from a randomised experiment," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 46(3), pages 393-416.
    8. Matilde Giaccherini & David Herberich & David Jimenez-Gomez & John List & Giovanni Ponti & Michael Price, 2020. "Are Economics and Psychology Complements in Household Technology Diffusion? Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," Natural Field Experiments 00713, The Field Experiments Website.
    9. Botao Qin & Haoyan Chen, 2022. "Does the nudge effect persist? Evidence from a field experiment using social comparison message in China," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 689-703, July.
    10. John A. List & James J. Murphy & Michael K. Price & Alexander G. James, 2019. "Do Appeals to Donor Benefits Raise More Money than Appeals to Recipient Benefits? Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment with Pick.Click.Give," NBER Working Papers 26559, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Damgaard, Mette Trier, 2021. "A decade of nudging: What have we learned?," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2021(1), pages 1-21.
    12. Paul Dolan & Robert Metcalfe, 2013. "Neighbors, Knowledge, and Nuggets: Two Natural Field Experiments on the Role of Incentives on Energy Conservation," Natural Field Experiments 00404, The Field Experiments Website.
    13. Daniel Engler & Gunnar Gutsche & Amantia Simixhiu & Andreas Ziegler, 2022. "Social norms and individual climate protection activities: A framed field experiment for Germany," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202230, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    14. Rita Abdel Sater, 2021. "Essays on the application of behavioural insights to environmental policy [Essais sur l’application des connaissances comportementales aux politiques environnementales]," SciencePo Working papers tel-03450909, HAL.
    15. Engler, Daniel & Ziegler, Andreas & Gutsche, Gunnar & Simixhiu, Amantia, 2023. "Social Norms and Individual Climate Protection Activities: A Framed Field Experiment for Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277662, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Joseph,George & Ayling,Sophie Charlotte Emi & Miquel-Florensa,Pepita & Bejarano,Hernán D. & Cardona,Alejandra Quevedo, 2021. "Behavioral Insights in Infrastructure Sectors : A Survey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9704, The World Bank.
    17. Quinn Keefer & Galib Rustamov, 2018. "Limited attention in residential energy markets: a regression discontinuity approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 993-1017, November.
    18. Mette T. Damgaard, 2020. "A decade of nudging: What have we learned?," Economics Working Papers 2020-07, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    19. Goette, Lorenz & Tripodi, Egon, 2024. "The limits of social recognition: Experimental evidence from blood donors," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    20. Hailey Hayeon Joo & Jungmin Lee & Sangkon Park, 2018. "Every Drop Counts: A Water Conservation Experiment With Hotel Guests," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1788-1808, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:158:y:2015:i:c:p:35-43. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.