Promoting energy-saving behaviour: formal social groups as promising middle actors for municipal interventions

Abstract

City governments worldwide are trying to motivate their citizens to reduce their energy use-a particular challenge as they try to reach individual households. A promising strategy to engage the public broadly entails collaborating with middle actors to multiply the effects of municipal interventions. Some of these middle actors are formal social groups (e.g. sports clubs and neighbourhood associations). We conducted an online experiment (N = 136) to determine whether such interventions were more effective when they are communicated through formal social groups than when communicated through city governments. Participants received letters containing advice for saving energy in the household. Willingness to participate was higher when the letters came from formal social groups than when they came from a city agency. Furthermore, actual members of formal social groups generally were more willing to participate. Our evidence suggests that formal social groups are promising middle actors for energy conservation campaigns and that city governments should engage more often with these groups to communicate with residents.

Exploring the role of positive direct experience in the adoption of energy efficient technologies: evidence from a Swiss field study on the promotion of low-flow showerheads

“…Energy-efficient technologies, such as LFSHs, can be promoted through behavioural interventions [26,29]. A large body of literature has evaluated different intervention approaches, such as feedback [30,31], information [32], goal setting [33] and social influence [34][35][36]. To promote energy efficient technologies, increasing attention has been directed towards social influence approaches, including social norms [34].…”

Teaming up for sustainability: Promoting sustainable mobility behaviour through sports clubs in Switzerland

“…Therefore, group members may react more positively towards energysaving programmes when communicated by their own group rather than by a city administration. Accordingly, Frick et al (2017) demonstrated in an online experiment that participants were more motivated to follow an energy-saving programme when addressed by their formal social group compared to being addressed by their municipal administration.…”

“…However, those who participate in such programmes are often already aware of their energy consumption and are active in saving energy (Sütterlin, Brunner, & Siegrist, 2011). One interesting approach for attracting new target groups when motivating behavioural change is collaborating with formal social groups, such as sports clubs (Seidl, Moser, & Blumer, 2017, Frick, Seidl, Stauffacher, & Moser, 2017).…”

“…Formal social groups are understood "as locally active groups whose members meet face-toface on a regular basis and engage in collective action to pursue certain goals" (Frick et al, 2017(Frick et al, , p. 1540, adapted from the definition by Schulz & Baumgartner, 2013). Examples of such groups are sports clubs, choirs, neighbourhood associations or political parties.…”

“…Therefore, it is difficult to estimate the effectiveness of formal social groups as multipliers based on these studies. One exception is the above-mentioned experiment by Frick et al (2017), which compared the motivating potential of formal social groups and municipal administration in the promotion of energy-saving programmes. However, since this study took place online, it placed participants in a highly artificial and hypothetical setting that lacked reallife contexts and consequences.…”