Promoting energy conservation behavior in public settings: The influence of social norms and personal responsibility

The role of normative prompts and norm support cues in promoting light-switching behavior: A field study

“…However, it is worth pointing out that the problem of leaving the lights on (upon exiting) occurs most frequently in public spaces visited only occasionally, such as restrooms (Bordass & Leaman, 1997;Richman, Dittmer, & Keller, 1996). Some researchers suggest it is the role of the individual's low level of personal responsibility for controlling the lights in public places that explains this fact (Dwyer, Maki, & Rothman, 2015;Pigg, Eilers, & Reed, 1996). Considering that descriptive normative beliefs are a strong predictor of behavior for individuals with low personal involvement (Göckeritz et al, 2010), it could be assumed that switching lights on or off is heavily norm-dependent, and therefore serves as an adequate target for testing the effectiveness of normative prompts.…”

“…In fact, the influence of descriptive norms has been empirically shown to facilitate, as well as inhibit, switching the lights off in public restrooms (Dwyer et al, 2015;Oceja & Berenguer, 2009). Entering an unoccupied room in which lights are switched on impedes the occurrence of turning the light off, since the descriptive norm cue (resulting from observation) states that it is not common behavior in this particular situation (Dwyer et al, 2015).…”

“…In fact, the influence of descriptive norms has been empirically shown to facilitate, as well as inhibit, switching the lights off in public restrooms (Dwyer et al, 2015;Oceja & Berenguer, 2009). Entering an unoccupied room in which lights are switched on impedes the occurrence of turning the light off, since the descriptive norm cue (resulting from observation) states that it is not common behavior in this particular situation (Dwyer et al, 2015). At the same time, it was found that when the light status is off when entering the room (positive descriptive norm-support cue), users tend to adjust their behavior correspondingly (Dwyer et al, 2015;Oceja & Berenguer, 2009).…”

“…Entering an unoccupied room in which lights are switched on impedes the occurrence of turning the light off, since the descriptive norm cue (resulting from observation) states that it is not common behavior in this particular situation (Dwyer et al, 2015). At the same time, it was found that when the light status is off when entering the room (positive descriptive norm-support cue), users tend to adjust their behavior correspondingly (Dwyer et al, 2015;Oceja & Berenguer, 2009). Building on these findings, we hypothesized (H1) that the light OFF status upon entrance (positive descriptive norm cue resulting from observation) will lead to a higher occurrence of energy conservation behavior compared to the light ON status upon entrance (negative descriptive norm cue resulting from observation).…”

Using social norms in smart meters: the norm distance effect

“…Past research has shown that social norms can be used to promote a number of pro-environmental behaviors such as littering prevention (Cialdini et al 1991;De Kort et al 2008), sustainable transportation (Kormos et al 2015), recycling (Schultz 1999), and water conservation (Richetin et al 2016;Schultz et al 2016;Jaeger and Schultz 2017). Past studies have also showed that social norms can be applied to promote energy conservation in both public (Bator et al 2014;Bergquist and Nilsson 2016;Dwyer et al 2015;Oceja and Berenguer 2009) and residential settings (Allcott 2011;Nolan et al 2008;Schultz et al 2007;Schultz et al 2015). However, the effect of normative influence is often moderated by other psychological variables.…”