Information and Energy Conservation

Articles
Seligman, C. (1985). Information and energy conservation. Marriage and Family Review, 9, 1-2, 135-149.
Examines reasons why consumers are not saving as much energy and money as they can using research on the psychology of the energy consumer. The information consumers have and need…

Prompting Thermostat Setting Behavior: Public Response to a Presidential Appeal for Conservation

Articles
Luyben, P. D. (1982). Prompting thermostat setting behavior: Public response to a presidential appeal for conservation. Environment and Behavior, 14, 1, 113-128.
Surveyed 419 residents door-to-door and by telephone to obtain readings of thermostat settings immediately after President Carter's 1977 appeal to conserve energy. Results show th…

Voluntary Response to Energy Conservation Appeals

Articles
Walker, J. M. (1980). Voluntary response to energy conservation appeals. Journal of Consumer Research, 7, 1, 88-92.
Reviews studies that support the hypothesis that there would be a voluntary reduction in residential energy use following the Arab oil embargo. The extent to which this reduction …

The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms

Articles
Schultz P. W., Nolan J. M., Cialdini R. B., Goldstein N. J., Griskevicius Vladas (2007). The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms. Psychological Science, 18(5), 429-434.
Despite a long tradition of effectiveness in laboratory tests, normative messages have had mixed success in changing behavior in field contexts, with some studies showing boomeran…

Effective Dissemination of Energy-Related Information: Applying Social Psychology and Evaluation Research

Articles
Dennis, M., Soderstrom, E.J., Koncinski, W.S., Cavanaugh, B. (1990). Effective Dissemination of Energy-Related Information: Applying Social Psychology and Evaluation Research. American Psychologist, 45(10), 1109.
Discusses the limitations of previous energy conservation programs in affecting the behavior of individual consumers. Suggests that the rational-economic model upon which they wer…

Normative Social Influence is Underdetected

Articles
Nolan, J. M., Schultz, P. W., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., Griskevicius V. (2008). Normative Social Influence is Underdetected. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34 (7), 913-923.
The present research investigated the persuasive impact and detectability of normative social influence. The first study surveyed 810 Californians about energy conservation and fo…

The Effect of Tailored Information, Goal Setting, and Tailored Feedback on Household Energy Use, Energy-Related Behaviors, and Behavioral Antecedents

Articles
Abrahamse, W., Steg, L., Vlek, C., & Rothengatter, T. (2007). The effect of tailored information, goal setting, and tailored feedback on household energy use, energy-related behaviors, and behavioral antecedents. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 27(4), 265-276.
In this multidisciplinary study, an Internet-based tool was used to encourage households (N = 189) to reduce their direct (gas, electricity and fuel) and indirect energy use (embe…

A Behavioral Analysis of Peaking in Residential Electrical-Energy Consumers

Articles
Kohlenberg, R., Phillips, T., & Proctor, W. (1976). A behavioral analysis of peaking in residential electrical-energy consumers. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 9(1), 13-18.
Investigated the peaking phenomenon, the tendency for electrical energy users to consume at high rates for brief periods during the day, by analyzing the electrical energy consumi…

A Review of Intervention Studies Aimed at Household Energy Conservation

Articles
Abrahamse, W., Steg, L., Vlek, C., & Rothengatter, T. (2005). A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25(3), 273-291.
This article reviews and evaluates the effectiveness of interventions aiming to encourage households to reduce energy consumption. Thirty-eight studies performed within the field …

Motivating Residents to Conserve Energy Without Financial Incentives

Articles
McMakin, A., Malone, E., & Lundgren, R. (2002). Motivating residents to conserve energy without financial incentives. Environment and Behavior, 34(6), 848-863.
Given the aim to motivate people to conserve energy in homes, we need to understand what drives people's energy use behavior and how it can be influenced. This article describes a…

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