Reducing Air Conditioning Waste by Signalling it Is Cool Outside

Articles
Becker, L. J. & Seligman, C. (1978). Reducing air conditioning waste by signalling it is cool outside. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4, 3, 412-415.
Examined the effects on residential energy consumption of providing homeowners with (1) a signaling device that indicated a conservation opportunity and (2) information feedback a…

Joint Effect of Feedback and Goal Setting on Performance: A Field Study of Residential Energy Conservation

Articles
Becker, L. J. (1978). Joint effect of feedback and goal setting on performance: A field study of residential energy conservation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 4, 428-433.
The facilitating motivational effect of feedback on performance has been attributed by some to difficult goals set in response to feedback. The present experiment attributes this …

Residential Water Use: Predicting and Reducing Consumption

Articles
Aitken, C. K., McMahon, T. A., Wearing, A. J. & Finlayson, B. L. (1994). Residential water use: Predicting and reducing consumption. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 2, 136-158.
Assessed variation in residential water consumption and evaluated methods of encouraging residents to reduce their consumption. Survey data were collected by mail questionnaire in…

The Environmentalist who Cried Drought: Reactions to Repeated Warnings about Depleting Resources Under Conditions of Uncertainty

Articles
Joireman, J., Posey, D., Truelove, H., & Parks, C. (2009). The environmentalist who cried drought: Reactions to repeated warnings about depleting resources under conditions of uncertainty. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 29(2), 181-192.
Three studies examined the impact of warnings about depleting resources. In Study 1, participants played 16 trials of a 5-person resource dilemma game with complete resource uncer…

Successfully Changing Individual Travel Behavior: Applying Community-Based Social Marketing to Travel Choice

Articles
Cooper, C. (2007). Successfully changing individual travel behavior: Applying community-based social marketing to travel choice. Transportation Research Record, (2021), pp. 88-99.
This paper demonstrates that community-based social marketing techniques can be successfully used to affect people's transportation awareness and behavior, as deployed in Washingt…

Changing Behavior with Normative Feedback Interventions: A Field Experiment on Curbside Recycling

Articles
Schultz, P. W. (1999). Changing behavior with normative feedback interventions: A field experiment on curbside recycling. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21, 1, 25-36.
Examined the effects of normative feedback on community curbside recycling, and predicted that activation of personal and social norms would lead to an increase in household recyc…

Crafting Normative Messages to Protect the Environment

Articles
Cialdini, R. (2003). Crafting normative messages to protect the environment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(4), 105-109. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.01242.
It is widely recognized that communications that activate social norms can be effective in producing societally beneficial conduct. Not so well recognized are the circumstances un…

Social Norms Approaches Using Descriptive Drinking Norms Education: A Review of the Research on Personalized Normative Feedback

Articles
Lewis, M., & Neighbors, C. (2006). Social norms approaches using descriptive drinking norms education: A review of the research on personalized normative feedback. Journal of American College Health, 54(4), 213-218. doi:10.3200/JACH.54.4.213-218.
College students have been shown to consistently overestimate the drinking of their peers. As a result, social norms approaches are effective in correcting these misperceived norm…

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…

Resolving Social Dilemmas: Dynamic Structural And Intergroup Aspects

Articles
Foddy, M, & Smithson, M. (1999). Choice of transportation mode: Factors influencing drivers' willingness to reduce personal car use and support car regulations . In Garvill, J. (Ed.). Resolving social dilemmas: Dynamic, structural, and intergroup aspects. (pp. 263-279).
Examined the effects of a structural intervention with social-psychological implications, the introduction of domestic meters for water use, on water use and conservation attitude…

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