The DOI matches its Crossref record; 98 of the 104 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Social norms and energy conservation
Abstract
This paper evaluates a series of programs run by a company called OPOWER to send Home Energy Report letters to residential utility customers comparing their electricity use to that of their neighbors. Using data from randomized natural field experiments at 600,000 treatment and control households across the United States, I estimate that the average program reduces energy consumption by 2.0%. The program provides additional evidence that non-price interventions can substantially and cost effectively change consumer behavior: the effect is equivalent to that of a short-run electricity price increase of 11 to 20%, and the cost effectiveness compares favorably to that of traditional energy conservation programs. Perhaps because the treatment included descriptive social norms, effects are heterogeneous: households in the highest decile of pre-treatment consumption decrease usage by 6.3%, while consumption by the lowest decile decreases by only 0.3%. A regression discontinuity design shows that different categories of “injunctive norms” played an insignificant role in encouraging relatively low users not to increase usage.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“A large meta-analysis found that significant residential energy savings can be achieved [215], by targeting the right interventions to the right households [14,16,17].”
From Tackling climate change with machine learning (2023) · cites this paper as [16]
Citations
Cites
Axelrod, R., & Hamilton, W. D. (1981) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7466396 · Cited by 20,065
How Much Should We Trust Differences-in-Differences Estimates?
Bertrand, M., Duflo, E., & Mullainathan, S. (2004) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/003355304772839588 · Cited by 10,641
A Theory of the Allocation of Time
Becker, G. S. (1965) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.2307/2228949 · Cited by 10,354
Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized studies
Rubin, D. B. (1974) · Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0037350 · Cited by 9,436 · cited 2×
“Nearly all are within the confidence intervals of the small sample pilots by Schultz et al. (2007) and Nolan et al.”
BackgroundA Simple Model of Herd Behavior
Banerjee, A. V. (1992) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.2307/2118364 · Cited by 6,556 · cited 1×
“[15] Banerjee, Abhijit (1992).”
Cialdini, R. B., Reno, R. R., & Kallgren, C. A. (1990) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.6.1015 · Cited by 5,965 · cited 2×
“[32] Cialdini, Robert, Raymond Reno, and Carl Kallgren (1990).”
BackgroundAkerlof, G., & Kranton, R. (2000) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/003355300554881 · Cited by 5,824 · cited 1×
“[5] Akerlof, George, and Rachel Kranton (2000).”
Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation
Imbens, G. W., & Wooldridge, J. M. (2009) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.47.1.5 · Cited by 4,926
Regression discontinuity designs in economics
Lee, D. S., & Lemieux, T. (2010) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.48.2.281 · Cited by 4,534
Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice
Imbens, G. W., & Lemieux, T. (2007) · Journal of Econometrics · doi:10.1016/j.jeconom.2007.05.001 · Cited by 3,701
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Friedrich, 2009, Saving Energy Cost-Effectively: A National Review of the Cost of Energy Saved through Utility-Sector Energy Efficiency Programs
- Lalonde, 1986, Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs, American Economic Review, 76, 604
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 1,301–1,400 of 2,706
Using big data for evaluating development outcomes: a systematic map
Infonomics, A., Rathinam, F., Khatua, S., 3ie, Siddiqui, Z., 3ie, Malik, M., 3ie, Duggal, P., 3ie, et al. (2020) · doi:10.51744/cmwp2 · Cited by 10
Dörrenberg, P., & Peichl, A. (2018) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3237993 · Cited by 10
Out of Sight Out of Mind: Household Perceptions of “Fair” Water Prices in Nairobi, Kenya
Fuente, D. E., Mulwa, R. M., & Cook, J. (2023) · Water Resources Research · doi:10.1029/2022wr033374 · Cited by 9
“Second, social norm information treatment studies typically provide users with information on how their usage compares to others (Allcott, 2011; Ferraro & Price, 2013).”
BackgroundInfluentialBreaking the Silence - Group Discussions, Social Pressure, and the Adoption of Health Technologies
Castro, S., & Mang, C. (2022) · Journal of Development Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103264 · Cited by 9
Christian, M., Girsang, L. R., Yulita, H., Sunarno, S., Muzammil, O. M., & Arifin, P. (2024) · Lecture notes in networks and systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-54009-7_27 · Cited by 9
Nudges versus prices: Lessons and challenges from a water-savings program
Hernández, F., Jaime, M., & Lavín, F. V. (2024) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107546 · Cited by 9
Fuhrmann-Riebel, H., D’Exelle, B., Vargas, K. L., Tonke, S., & Verschoor, A. (2022) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103046 · Cited by 9
Social norms and tariff salience: An experimental study on household waste management
Bonan, J., Cattaneo, C., D’Adda, G., et al. (2025) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103124 · Cited by 9
Estimating opportunity costs for energy-efficiency renovations: Case study in Germany
Galvin, R., & Galvin, P. M. (2025) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108629 · Cited by 9
An Economic Perspective on Building Labeling Policies
Stavins, R. N., Schatzki, T., & Borck, J. C. (2013) · Cited by 9
Exploring Energy Use in Retail Stores: A Field Experiment
Loureiro, M. L., & Labandeira, X. (2019) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2019.104570 · Cited by 9
Rad, M. R., Manning, D. T., Suter, J. F., et al. (2019) · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · doi:10.22004/ag.econ.291252 · Cited by 9
Ham, S. W., Karava, P., Bilionis, I., & Braun, J. E. (2021) · Journal of Building Performance Simulation · doi:10.1080/19401493.2021.1968495 · Cited by 9
“In addition, peer-comparison (i.e. normative feedback) for a relative evaluation can be used for a small group of residents (Jain, Taylor, and Peschiera 2012; Anderson et al. 2017) or large-scale utility programmes (Allcott 2011).”
MethodParticipation in domestic energy retrofit programmes: key spatio-temporal drivers
Mohareb, E. A., Gillich, A., & Bristow, D. N. (2022) · Buildings and Cities · doi:10.5334/bc.202 · Cited by 9
Doing more with less: Behavioral insights for anti-piracy messages
Grolleau, G., & Meunier, L. (2022) · The Information Society · doi:10.1080/01972243.2022.2095683 · Cited by 9
“Social norms have been successfully used as behavioral levers in diverse fields, such as wearing seatbelts (Linkenbach and Perkins 2003), encouraging charitable donations (Frey and Meier 2004), and energy savings (Allcott 2011; see also Farrow, Grolleau, and Ibanez 2017).”
BackgroundPublic media campaign and energy conservation: A natural experiment in Singapore
Agarwal, S. D., Sing, T. F., & Sultana, M. (2022) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106281 · Cited by 10
Xu, C., Qin, B., & Rawlings, D. (2022) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107597 · Cited by 11
The Belief–Action Gap in Environmental Psychology: How Wide? How Irrational?
Grandin, A., Boon-Falleur, M., & Chevallier, C. (2022) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009001021.037 · Cited by 34
Komatsu, H., Kubota, H., Tanaka, N., et al. (2022) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0277183 · Cited by 9
“This could be a straightforward application, which is similar to Home Energy Reports (HERs) [47], the effects of which were identified and widely applied to actual services, although the topic of HERs is promotion of energy conservation for residential sectors and different from our present study.”
What works for water conservation? Evidence from a field experiment in India
Vasilaky, K., Harou, A. P., Alfredo, K. A., & Kapur, I. (2023) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102802 · Cited by 11
Examining the Role of Neutralization in Pro-Environmental Behavior
Neumann, R., & Mehlkop, G. (2022) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2023.103041 · Cited by 13
Vogler, J. B. (2013) · Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks · doi:10.1057/9781137275394_10 · Cited by 9
Facchini, A., Rottondi, C., & Verticale, G. (2017) · Energy Efficiency · doi:10.1007/s12053-017-9510-y · Cited by 9
“Therefore, social norms are nowadays an important topic of research not only in contemporary sociology, economics or game theory, but also in environmental sciences (Allcott 2011; Kinzig et al. 2013).”
BackgroundPublic good provision, in-group cooperation and out-group descriptive norms: A lab experiment
Kandul, S., & Lanz, B. (2021) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2021.102382 · Cited by 9
Efficiency criteria for nudges and norms
Viscusi, W. K. (2019) · Public Choice · doi:10.1007/s11127-019-00712-5 · Cited by 9
“In the case of injunctive social norm nudges to promote energy conservation, the nudge policy increased energy conservation only by 2.0% (Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundInfluentialInformational nudges and public goods in networks
Ouvrard, B., & Stenger, A. (2019) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy · doi:10.1080/21606544.2019.1676826 · Cited by 9
Kowalska-Pyzalska, A., Byrka-Kita, K., & Serek, J. (2020) · Energies · doi:10.3390/en13184737 · Cited by 9
Are Information Disclosure Mandates Effective? Evidence from the Credit Card Market
Elizondo, A., & Seira, E. (2014) · doi:10.36095/banxico/di.2014.18 · Cited by 9
Cesareo, M., Tagliabue, M., Oppo, A., & Moderato, P. (2021) · Cogent Psychology · doi:10.1080/23311908.2021.1880304 · Cited by 12
“Moreover, the overuse of smartphones was shown to heighten psychological distress (Chesley, 2005) and lead to other health issues, such as sleep disturbances and depression (Thomée et al., 2007, 2011).”
BackgroundLi, Z., & Cao, X. (2021) · Frontiers in Environmental Science · doi:10.3389/fenvs.2021.626890 · Cited by 8
“In addition, evidence has shown that peers’ or neighbors’ behavior significantly influences the residents’ behavior change and proves the effectiveness of social norms in response to information feedback (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundWhen a nudge is (not) enough: Experiments on social information and incentives
Chen, J., Fonseca, M. A., & Grimshaw, S. B. (2021) · European Economic Review · doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103711 · Cited by 9
Jin, E., & Brown‐Devlin, N. (2021) · Mass Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/15205436.2021.1910962 · Cited by 9
“© 2021 Mass Communication & Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication global warming (Allcott, 2011; Alló & Loureiro, 2014; Bolsen et al., 2014; Steentjes et al., 2017).”
BackgroundSocial policy instruments and the compliance environment
Kessler, J. B., Low, C., & Singhal, M. (2021) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2021.09.037 · Cited by 8
Zikmund‐Fisher, B. J., Tuepker, A., Metcalf, E. E., Strange, W., & Teo, A. R. (2021) · Patient Education and Counseling · doi:10.1016/j.pec.2021.10.024 · Cited by 9
Fanghella, V., D’Adda, G., & Tavoni, M. (2022) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102662 · Cited by 9
Tian, Z., & Shi, X. (2022) · Energy and Buildings · doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112244 · Cited by 9
Field experimental evidence of how social relations shape behavior that promotes energy conservation
Wang, Z., Lü, B., Wang, B., Qiu, Y. L., Li, J., & Zhang, B. (2022) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105456 · Cited by 9
“…that lead to further adoption, and comparing a household’s electricity bill to that of its neighbors has been shown to reduce home energy use (Allcott, 2011).31 Considering the spatial spillover, this word-of-mouth communication is more advantageous in small and medium-sized communities…”
Categorizing relative water use perception bias using household surveys and monthly water bills
Haeffner, M., Jackson‐Smith, D. B., & Barnett, M. J. (2023) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117443 · Cited by 10
An experimental study of consumer attitudes and intentions in electricity markets
Russo, G. D., Lytle, A. E., Hoffenson, S., Wu, L., & Mahoney, C. (2023) · Cleaner and Responsible Consumption · doi:10.1016/j.clrc.2023.100116 · Cited by 9
Schneider, P. T., van de Rijt, A., Boele, C., & Buskens, V. (2023) · Energy Efficiency · doi:10.1007/s12053-023-10116-6 · Cited by 9
“One approach that requires sufficient numbers of cases near the threshold of average consumption is a regression-discontinuity design, in which the discontinuous effect of a social comparison treatment is separated from the continuous effect of pre-treatment consumption on post-treatment consumption (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundFormal and informal quota enforcement
Nøstbakken, L. (2012) · Resource and Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.reseneeco.2012.10.001 · Cited by 11
“Individual differences in the propensity to obey the norm is in line with the empirical findings of Allcott (2011), who study how social norms affect energy conservation.”
ResultSocial acceptance of green energy and dynamic electricity tariffs — A short review
Kowalska-Pyzalska, A. (2015) · Modern Electric Power Systems · doi:10.1109/meps.2015.7477192 · Cited by 14
“Many researchers showed that strong social norms, are needed to encourage adoption [6, 8, 9, 30, 31, 35-38].”
BackgroundResultInfluentialEnergyUse - A Collective Semantic Platform for Monitoring and Discussing Energy Consumption
Burel, G., Piccolo, L. S. G., & Alani, H. (2016) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-46547-0_26 · Cited by 9
“Comparisons and Competitions Peer comparisons and competitions tend to be effective interventions in nudging towards greener behaviour [10, 3].”
BackgroundHow peer effects influence energy consumption
Zhou, D. P., Roozbehani, M., Dahleh, M. A., et al. (2017) · Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision & Control, including the Symposium on Adaptive Processes · doi:10.1109/cdc.2017.8264229 · Cited by 9
“all experiments unanimously found an average reduction among the highest consuming users of around 1-2% [4], ambiguous results were found among low consumers.”
ResultAccess to and consumption of natural gas: Spatial and socio-demographic drivers
Curtis, J. A., Tovar, M. A., & Grilli, G. (2020) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111614 · Cited by 11
“For example, Allcott (2011) examines how communicating social norms impacts on energy consumption.”
BackgroundBehavioural economics and health
Kessler, J. B., & Zhang, C. Y. (2015) · doi:10.1093/med/9780199661756.003.0130 · Cited by 10
The The Methodology of Thermal Energy Management for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings
Heim, D., & Pawłowski, M. (2019) · Periodica Polytechnica Civil Engineering · doi:10.3311/ppci.12973 · Cited by 9
Conservation Policies: Who Responds to Price and Who Responds to Prescription?Preprint
Wichman, C. J., Taylor, L. O., & von Haefen, R. H. (2016) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2789765 · Cited by 9
Palmer, K., & Walls, M. A. (2015) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2564251 · Cited by 9
“Seeing their energy use benchmarked against other buildings may reinforce that effect; peer effects have also been shown to influence energy consumption (Allcott 2011; Costa and Kahn 2013, Ayres et al. 2013).”
BackgroundEnergy Efficiency and Conservation Attitudes: An Exploration of a Landscape of Choices
McClaren, M. (2015) · doi:10.15760/etd.2198 · Cited by 8
“This was documented by Opower Home Energy Report experiments, in which residents received reports of their home’s energy usage and a comparison of their consumption to their neighbors’ (Allcott, 2011).”
MethodPerceptions and Inattention in Private Electricity ConsumptionPreprint
Kaaukauskas, A., & Broberg, T. (2016) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2743227 · Cited by 9
“The first two questions are partly addressed in Attari et al. (2010). They investigate the perception of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household activities using a survey approach.”
Rivers, N. J. (2018) · OECD environment working papers · doi:10.1787/6ad4d5e3-en · Cited by 9
When Nudges Fail to Scale: Field Experimental Evidence from Goal Setting on Mobile PhonesPreprint
Löschel, A., Rodemeier, M., & Werthschulte, M. (2020) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3693673 · Cited by 9
Zhang, C. Y., Hemmeter, J., Kessler, J. B., et al. (2020) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w27875 · Cited by 9
Burkhardt, J., Gillingham, K. T., & Kopalle, P. K. (2019) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3336385 · Cited by 9
Nudges for COVID-19 Voluntary Vaccination: How to Explain Peer Information?Preprint
Sasaki, S., Saito, T., & Ohtake, F. (2021) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3866284 · Cited by 9
Brandon, A., List, J. A., Metcalfe, R., Price, M., & Rundhammer, F. (2019) · PubMed · doi:10.1073/pnas.1802874115 · Cited by 112
Using nudges for water demand management: A field experiment for water conservation
Otaki, Y., Iwatani, S., Honda, H., & Ueda, K. (2022) · PLOS Water · doi:10.1371/journal.pwat.0000057 · Cited by 8
“For example, Opower’s Home Energy Report uses bar graphs to compare monthly electricity usage with that of neighbors, emoticons to evaluate usage, line graphs to show trends over the past few months, and tips on resource conservation to save electricity [6].”
BackgroundResultGorini, G., Betti, E., Stoffel, S., Falini, P., Iossa, A., Senore, C., Baiocchi, D., Zappa, M., Battisti, F., & Mantellini, P. (2023) · Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2023.107615 · Cited by 8
Reimagining net metering: A polycentric model for equitable solar adoption in the United States
Gazmararian, A. F., & Tingley, D. H. (2023) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2023.103374 · Cited by 8
Mayer, A., & Carter, E. M. (2024) · Energy Efficiency · doi:10.1007/s12053-024-10211-2 · Cited by 9
“Households adopt solar systems in part because of pressure from social norms and the perceived expectations of neighborhoods (Allcott, 2011; Curtius et al., 2018), financial considerations (Langheim et al., 2014), concern for the environment (Schelly, 2010), and interest in new technologies (Palm,…”
Social norms and individual climate protection activities: A survey experiment for Germany
Engler, D., Gutsche, G., Simixhiu, A., & Ziegler, A. R. (2024) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2024.108103 · Cited by 8
Analyzing different household energy use patterns using clustering and machine learning
Cui, X., Lee, M., Uddin, M. N., et al. (2025) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2025.115335 · Cited by 8
More sustainable choices in the workplace: a systematic review of nudge theory applications
Paolis, G. D., Tiberio, L., & Caffaro, F. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1556796 · Cited by 10
“One major thread is represented by the literature on social influence, notably the work of Cialdini (1993), Schultz et al. (2007), and Allcott (2011).”
Clarifying by declassifying: removing the buzzwords from behavioral public policy
Oliver, A. (2025) · Policy and Society · doi:10.1093/polsoc/puaf010 · Cited by 18
The (un)compromise effect: How suggested alternatives can promote active choice
Ekström, M. (2020) · Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics · doi:10.1016/j.socec.2020.101639 · Cited by 7
Reeck, C., Gamma, K., & Weber, E. U. (2022) · Theory and Decision · doi:10.1007/s11238-022-09874-z · Cited by 9
Bergquist, M., & Ejelöv, E. (2022) · Social Influence · doi:10.1080/15534510.2022.2047776 · Cited by 8
“, 2017), reducing alcohol consumption (Mattern & Neighbors, 2004; Ridout & Campbell, 2014), saving household energy (Allcott, 2011; Schultz et al., 2007), encouraging voting (Gerber et al.”
BackgroundSchubert, I., Weber, S., Martínez-Cruz, A. L., Burger, P., & Farsi, M. (2022) · Frontiers in Sustainability · doi:10.3389/frsus.2022.837427 · Cited by 11
“Moreover, institutions provide a broader context in which social norms are perceived (Allcott, 2011; Ostrom, 2014), leading to social norms as mediator between institutions and ECB.”
BackgroundGill, C., Atlas, S., Hardisty, D. J., & Scott, S. P. (2022) · Journal of Consumer Behaviour · doi:10.1002/cb.2051 · Cited by 8
Engaging academic staff in the quality assurance system in higher education: A field experiment
Meléndez-Jímenez, M. A., Morales, A. J., & Rodero-Cosano, J. (2022) · Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics · doi:10.1016/j.socec.2022.101923 · Cited by 11
The Promise of Private-Sphere Pro-environmental Behavior as Climate Action
Carrico, A. R. (2022) · Current Climate Change Reports · doi:10.1007/s40641-022-00188-4 · Cited by 9
Ownership structure and eco-innovation: Evidence from Chinese family firms
Wang, F., Wang, X., Li, B., & Liu, Y. S. (2023) · Pacific-Basin Finance Journal · doi:10.1016/j.pacfin.2023.102158 · Cited by 9
Peer, S. Z., & Rosenbloom, T. (2024) · Accident Analysis & Prevention · doi:10.1016/j.aap.2024.107638 · Cited by 9
Can nudges be leveraged to enhance diversity in organizations? A systematic review
Cervantez, J., & Milkman, K. L. (2024) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2024.101874 · Cited by 9
Álvarez-Antelo, D., López-Muñoz, P., Llases, L., & Lauer, A. H. (2024) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108498 · Cited by 8
Araya, R., Ortiz, E. A., Bottan, N. L., & Cristia, J. (2025) · Economics of Education Review · doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2025.102647 · Cited by 9
Behavior Driven Energy Efficiency: A Customized Feedback Approach
Shen, M., & Cui, Q. (2015) · Energy Procedia · doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2015.11.259 · Cited by 8
ENERGY CONSERVATION THROUGH SOCIAL COMPETITIONS IN BLOCKS OF FLATS
Kamilaris, A., Kitromilides, G., & Pitsillides, A. (2012) · International Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems · doi:10.5220/0003950301670174 · Cited by 8
“As an example, OPOWER company exploits social norms to influence people conserve energy, by sending energy report letters to residential utility customers, comparing their electricity use to that of their neighbors (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundBehavioral Approaches to Managing Household Energy Consumption
Baddeley, M. C. (2015) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16793-0_9 · Cited by 11
McKenzie-Mohr, D., Lee, N. R., Schultz, P. W., & Kotler, P. (2012) · Sage eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781483349466.n12 · Cited by 8
Wang, D., & Yuan, C. X. (2018) · Transportation Planning and Technology · doi:10.1080/03081060.2018.1453917 · Cited by 8
“Direct energy use in housing and personal transportation are the contributors to the household energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions (Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundHarold, J., Lyons, S., & Cullinan, J. (2018) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2018.04.034 · Cited by 8
Analyzing residential weatherization decisions using hybrid simulation modeling
Huang, W., Krejci, C. C., Dorneich, M. C., Passe, U., Shenk, L., & Stonewall, J. H. (2019) · Building Simulation · doi:10.1007/s12273-019-0518-4 · Cited by 8
Improvingacceptability of nudges: Learning from attitudes towards opt-in and opt-outpolicies
HaoyangYan, & FrankYates, J. (2019) · Judgment and Decision Making · Cited by 8
Taranu, V., Verbeeck, G., & Nuyts, E. (2019) · Building Research & Information · doi:10.1080/09613218.2019.1661763 · Cited by 8
Zhang, J., Zhang, L., Qin, Y., et al. (2020) · 地理科学进展 · doi:10.18306/dlkxjz.2020.02.008 · Cited by 8
Behavioural insights for conservation and sustainability
Park, T. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108638210.018 · Cited by 8
“For example, comparing householders’ energy use to their more efficient neighbours reliably reduces consumption by a few percent (Allcott, 2011), and telling hotel guests that most others re-used their towel led to 44% doing so, significantlymore than with a conventional environmental message…”
BackgroundThe development of a social norms adherence intervention for adolescents with epilepsy
Modi, A. C., Patel, A. D., Gutierrez‐Colina, A. M., Wetter, S. E., Heckaman, L. M., Debs, A., Mara, C. A., Wentzel, E., Schmidt, M., & Stevens, J. H. (2020) · Epilepsy & Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107628 · Cited by 8
“, receiving feedback that peers’ behavior surpasses one’s own behavior) can boost suboptimal performance [24-26].”
BackgroundDo Household Time, Risk, and Social Preferences Affect Home Energy Retrofit Decisions in Korea?
Kim, J., & Nam, S. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su13084152 · Cited by 8
“Allcott [20] provided the evidence that the Home Energy Report reduces energy consumption by 2.”
BackgroundThe impact of social norms on cross-state energy regime changes
Farhidi, F., & Khiabani, V. (2021) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112257 · Cited by 8
Behavioural approaches and conservation messages with New Zealand’s threatened kiwi
Walsh, P. J. (2021) · Global Ecology and Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01694 · Cited by 8
“Previous messaging research in other areas, like energy conservation (Allcott, 2011; Allcott and Rogers, 2014) and recreation (Allpress, 2019), has found that behavioural messaging techniques like nudging can improve environmental performance or behaviour.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialUnderstanding the rebound: normative evaluations of energy use in the United States
Horne, C., & Kennedy, E. H. (2021) · Environmental Sociology · doi:10.1080/23251042.2021.1958545 · Cited by 8
Bonner, A. C., Biglan, A., & Drugan-Eppich, K. (2021) · Perspectives on Behavior Science · doi:10.1007/s40614-021-00316-9 · Cited by 10
“, Allcott, 2011; Ayres et al., 2012), reductions in energy consumption were observed. In the last decade, similar programs have been rolled out nationwide to provide households with knowledge and information about their energy consumption in the name of energy conservation. However, similar examples of intervention sc…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialManaging healthcare costs by peer-group modeling
Weiss, S. M., Kulikowski, C. A., Galen, R. S., et al. (2015) · Applied Intelligence · doi:10.1007/s10489-015-0685-7 · Cited by 8
“For example, in a different context, electricity utilities often provide such feedback with monthly utility bills, which have been shown to promote energy conservation [2].”
Backgroundde Walque, D., Chukwuma, A., Ayivi-Guedehoussou, N., & Koshkakaryan, M. (2022) · Social Science & Medicine (1967) · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114763 · Cited by 5
Siepelmeyer, H., & Otterbring, T. (2022) · Frontiers in Sustainability · doi:10.3389/frsus.2022.899938 · Cited by 8
“…existing sustainability literature, they are often implied merely as preconditions, as in studies using social normative influence to foster environmentally beneficial behaviors (Allcott, 2011; Loschelder et al., 2019) that assume a certain degree of social identity in the invoked reference group.”
BackgroundTalukder, A., Islam, M. N., Sarker, M., Goswami, I., Siddiqua, R. R., Akter, F., Chowdhury, S., Chowdhury, I. A., Rahman, A.-U., & Latif, A. H. M. M. (2022) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059091 · Cited by 8
Behavioral messages and debt repayment
Barboni, G., Cárdenas, J.-C., & de Roux, N. (2026) · Review of Finance · doi:10.1093/rof/rfag015 · Cited by 8
Partisanship and energy efficiency program participation in the USA
Mayer, A., Carter, E. M., & Feinberg, E. (2023) · npj Climate Action · doi:10.1038/s44168-023-00066-1 · Cited by 8
“The most well-known examples of nudges involve providing households information about the energy consumption of comparable neighbors 18 or similar interventions that are meant to shift social norms 19 .”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Allcott, H.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Allcott, Hunt
- Venue
- Journal of Public Economics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-10
- Volume
- 95
- Issue
- 9-10
- Pages
- 1082-1095
- ISSN
- 0047-2727 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2139035425
- Cited by
- 2,802
- References
- 104
- Citations by year
- 2026: 225 · 2025: 209 · 2024: 194 · 2023: 208 · 2022: 226 · 2021: 257 · 2020: 225 · 2019: 240 · 2018: 199 · 2017: 171 · 2016: 165 · 2015: 161 · 2014: 147 · 2013: 94 · 2012: 55
- FWCI
- 263.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Public Economics (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Pro-Environmental Behavior and Attitudes
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- social norms, energy conservation, social comparison, residential electricity consumption, cost-effectiveness, injunctive norms, descriptive norms, treatment effect heterogeneity
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
