Norms, prices, and commitment: A comprehensive overview of field experiments in the energy domain and treatment effect moderators

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Stepan Vesely¹  Christian A. Klöckner¹  Giuseppe Carrus²  Lorenza Tiberio²  Federica Caffaro²  Mehmet Efe Biresselioglu³  Andrea C. Kollmann⁴  Anca C. Sinea⁵ 

[1] Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science of Technology;Department of Education, University Roma Tre;Sustainable Energy Division, Izmir University of Economics;Energieinstitut an der Johannes Kepler Universität Linz;Department of Political, Administrative and Communication Studies, Babeş-Bolyai University

关键词: Energy conservation;    energy efficiency;    social norms;    incentives;    commitment;    goal setting;    Interventions;    moderators;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2022.967318

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of field experiments utilizing social norms, commitment and price-based interventions to promote energy conservation, load shifting, and energy efficiency behaviors. Treatment effects reported in the extant literature, as well as the factors that may strengthen or dampen these effects are reviewed. We find that social norm and incentive-based interventions mostly achieve small reductions in energy consumption, and that the effects of commitment-based interventions are essentially zero for the most part. Incentive effects on energy efficiency investments are mostly non-existent, safe for a few exceptions. One gap that we identify is the almost complete absence of field experiments leveraging social norms or commitment to promote energy efficiency investments. We discuss a broad range of (mostly under-researched) plausible moderators of the interventions’ effects. Crucially, a more careful attention to moderators in future research can highlight instances in which interventions can be effective, notwithstanding their modest or non-existent average treatment effects. Our review offers a starting point in this regard.

【 授权许可】

CC BY