Is the Monster Green-Eyed, or just Green? Assessing the Impact of Group Cohesion and Environmental Attitudes on Energy Conservation

Using tools from behavioural economics and psychology to establish non-financial ways to incentivise people to reduce domestic energy usage has become a popular and ever-expanding area of research. This study builds upon the existing literature by providing subjects with energy performance information at group-level in a controlled field experiment setting. The results indicate that the provision of this relative information does stimulate energy-conserving behaviour, and this is most pronounced among those who held pre-trial preferences for sustainable living. Because these participants are more responsive to comparative information, one conjecture is that the attitudes and structure of social groups could be a key driver in determining the extent to which behavioural change is achievable. These results therefore imply that there is a role for issuing relative information on performance, but that the role of group cohesion and affiliation could heavily determine the magnitude of these effects.