IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v5y2020i11d10.1038_s41560-020-00719-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The interaction of descriptive and injunctive social norms in promoting energy conservation

Author

Listed:
  • Jacopo Bonan

    (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment (EIEE), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici
    Politecnico di Milano)

  • Cristina Cattaneo

    (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment (EIEE), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici)

  • Giovanna d’Adda

    (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment (EIEE), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici
    University of Milan
    Fondazione Pesenti)

  • Massimo Tavoni

    (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment (EIEE), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici
    Politecnico di Milano)

Abstract

Behavioural interventions that leverage social norms are widely used to foster energy conservation. For instance, home energy reports combine information on others’ behaviour (descriptive feedback) and approval for norm compliant behaviour (injunctive feedback). In a randomized controlled trial, we investigated how descriptive and injunctive feedbacks interact to affect electricity use, and evaluate the effects of additional normative feedback presented in the form of descriptive or injunctive energy conservation norm primes. We found that consistent descriptive and injunctive feedback boosts the effectiveness of social information in inducing energy conservation. When descriptive and injunctive feedback are in conflict, conservation behaviour is a function of the relative strength of the two types of feedback. Additional normative feedback produces smaller gains when it reinforces existing information of the same type. These results suggest complementarities between different types of normative messages rather than superiority of any one kind of feedback.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacopo Bonan & Cristina Cattaneo & Giovanna d’Adda & Massimo Tavoni, 2020. "The interaction of descriptive and injunctive social norms in promoting energy conservation," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(11), pages 900-909, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:11:d:10.1038_s41560-020-00719-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-020-00719-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-00719-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41560-020-00719-z?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Fanghella, Valeria & Faure, Corinne & Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte & Schleich, Joachim, 2022. "Discriminatory subsidies for energy-efficient technologies and the role of envy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Pietro Guarnieri & Lorenzo Spadoni, 2024. "Norms and anti-coordination: elicitation and priming in an El Farol Bar Game experiment," Discussion Papers 2024/303, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    3. Fanghella, Valeria & D'Adda, Giovanna & Tavoni, Massimo, 2022. "Evaluating the impact of technological renovation and competition on energy consumption in the workplace," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    4. Kim, Jin Han & Kaemingk, Michael, 2021. "Persisting effects of social norm feedback letters in reducing household electricity usage in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe: A randomized controlled trial," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 153-161.
    5. Bonan, Jacopo & Cattaneo, Cristina & D'Adda, Giovanna & Galliera, Arianna & Tavoni, Massimo, 2023. "Widening the Scope: The Direct and Spillover Effects of Nudging Water Efficiency in the Presence of Other Behavioral Interventions," RFF Working Paper Series 23-46, Resources for the Future.
    6. Le Thi Dieu Hien & Khuu Ngoc Huyen & Thi Hong Loc Hoang, 2023. "Factors Affecting Energy-Saving Intentions among Youth in Vietnam," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(6), pages 603-609, November.
    7. Laura M. König & Vera Araújo‐Soares, 2023. "Will the Farm to Fork strategy be effective in changing food consumption behavior? A health psychology perspective," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(2), pages 785-802, June.
    8. 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).
    9. Wang, Bo & Yang, Zihan & Le Hoa Pham, Thi & Deng, Nana & Du, Heran, 2023. "Can social impacts promote residents’ pro-environmental intentions and behaviour: Evidence from large-scale demand response experiment in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    10. Astrid Dannenberg & Gunnar Gutsche & Marlene Batzke & Sven Christens & Daniel Engler & Fabian Mankat & Sophia Moeller & Eva Weingaertner & Andreas Ernst & Marcel Lumkowsky & Georg von Wangenheim & Ger, 2022. "The effects of norms on environmental behavior," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202219, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    11. Mundaca, Luis & Román-Collado, Rocío & Cansino, José M., 2022. "Assessing the impacts of social norms on low-carbon mobility options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    12. Gavrilets, Sergey & Tverskoi, Denis & Sánchez, Angel, 2023. "Modeling social norms: an integration of the norm-utility approach with beliefs dynamics," SocArXiv n934a, Center for Open Science.
    13. Akfırat, Serap & Bayrak, Fatih & Üzümçeker, Emir & Ergiyen, Tolga & Yurtbakan, Taylan & Uysal, Mete Sefa, 2023. "The roles of social norms and leadership in health communication in the context of COVID-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    14. 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.
    15. Ukasha Ramli, 2021. "Social Norms Based Eco-Feedback for Household Water Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-13, March.
    16. Bonan, Jacopo & Curzi, Daniele & D'Adda, Giovanna & Ferro, Simone, 2023. "Climate Change Salience and Electricity Consumption: Evidence from Twitter Activity," RFF Working Paper Series 23-34, Resources for the Future.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:11:d:10.1038_s41560-020-00719-z. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    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.