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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.
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“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]
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Empowering energy citizenship among the energy poor
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Voluntary Approaches to Environmental Protection and Resource Management
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“…disclosure of violations by water supply companies on their compliance behavior (Bennear&Olmstead 2008) and the use of home energy reports that compare a household’s electricity usage with usage by neighbors and that provide information about energy conservation (Costa & Kahn 2010, Allcott 2011).”
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Doss, C., Fahle, E. M., Loeb, S., & York, B. N. (2018) · The Journal of Human Resources · doi:10.3368/jhr.54.3.0317-8637r · Cited by 85
Bernheim, B. D., & Taubinsky, D. (2018) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w24828 · Cited by 107
Bhanot, S. P. (2018) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.11.002 · Cited by 92
“As in Allcott (2011), the authors also find that the largest effects come from those with the highest ex-ante water use.”
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“There is a considerable evidence from across a range of domains, such as energy, littering, voting, and recycling waste, that it works (Allcott, 2011; Cialdini, 2003; Gerber & Rogers, 2009; Schultz, 1999).”
BackgroundConservation Research, Policy and Practice
Sutherland, W. J., Brotherton, P. N. M., Ockendon, N., Pettorelli, N., Vickery, J. A., Davies, Z. G., Boyd, I., Wintle, B. C., Kennicutt, M. C., II, Altringham, J. D., et al. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108638210 · Cited by 84
Nudging Away False News: Evidence from a Social Norms Experiment
Andı, S., & Akesson, J. (2020) · Digital Journalism · doi:10.1080/21670811.2020.1847674 · Cited by 87
How smart do smart meters need to be?
Mogles, N. M., Walker, I. O., Ramallo-González, A. P., Lee, J. H., Natarajan, S., Padget, J. A., Gabe‐Thomas, E., Lovett, T., Ren, G., Hyniewska, S., et al. (2017) · Building and Environment · doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.09.008 · Cited by 80
“For example, attempts to stimulate savings through social comparison and competition have not achieved notable success [25, 27, 28, 29].”
BackgroundMotivating the adoption of new community-minded behaviors: An empirical test in Nigeria
Blair, G., Littman, R., & Paluck, E. L. (2019) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau5175 · Cited by 83
“Research has uncovered several factors that drive and constrain community-minded behavior, including expectations of paybacks (2) and of punishments for free riders (3), internalized decision-making tendencies that favor cooperation over selfishness (4), and perceived social norms (5).”
The More You Know: Information Effects on Job Application Rates in a Large Field Experiment
Gee, L. (2018) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2017.2994 · Cited by 94
“6See Cialdini et al. (1990); Frey and Meier (2004); Shang and Croson (2006); Martin and Randal (2008); Croson and Shang (2008); Chen et al. (2010); Allcott (2011); Anik et al. (2014); Hallsworth et al. (2014); Mobius and Rosenblat (2014); Smith et al. (2015); Hoxby et al. (2013); Allcott and Rogers…”
Zimmermann, V., & Renaud, K. (2021) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/3429888 · Cited by 88
“…in which households received regular reports on their energy consumption showed that the effect of decreasing energy consumption was maintained even after several months [10], but also that the effect declined in the months after receiving a report and increased upon receipt of the next letter [4].”
BackgroundChadwick, K., Russell‐Bennett, R., & Biddle, N. (2022) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2022.102528 · Cited by 84
Carbon emissions from the commercial building sector: The role of climate, quality, and incentives
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Frederiks, E. R., Stenner, K., Hobman, E. V., & Fischle, M. (2016) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2016.08.020 · Cited by 90
Promoting Sustainable Hotel Guest Behavior: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Nisa, C. F., Varum, C., & Botelho, A. (2017) · Cornell Hospitality Quarterly · doi:10.1177/1938965517704371 · Cited by 81
“Some people dislike social comparison, especially when their performance is considered to be weaker than others (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundCao, M., Gai, T., Wu, J., et al. (2025) · Information Fusion · doi:10.1016/j.inffus.2025.103107 · Cited by 81
Are Information Disclosures Effective? Evidence from the Credit Card Market
Seira, E., Elizondo, A., & Laguna-Müggenburg, E. (2017) · American Economic Journal Economic Policy · doi:10.1257/pol.20140404 · Cited by 77
Ohler, A., & Billger, S. M. (2014) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.07.031 · Cited by 79
“Ek and Söderholm (2008) also find some evidence that moral and social norms significantly affect the purchase of green electricity, and Allcott (2011) reports that electricity consumption decreases when customers have knowledge of their neighbor's electricity in comparison to their own. Social norms reflect a person's…”
InfluentialWallander, S., Ferraro, P. J., & Higgins, N. A. (2017) · American Journal of Agricultural Economics · doi:10.1093/ajae/aax023 · Cited by 80
“Individualized letters have been shown to induce energy and water conservation at the household level (Allcott 2011; Costa and Kahn 2013; Ferraro, Miranda, and Price 2011).”
BackgroundBehavioral Public Administration: Past, Present, and Future
Bhanot, S. P., & Linos, E. (2019) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.13129 · Cited by 79
“…a similar template (small nudge-style changes to written communications) has been shown to shape behavior in a number of other policy domains, including uptake of benefits programs (Bhargava and Manoli 2015), police recruitment (Linos 2018), and reduction of energy consumption (Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundNudging Public Employees Through Descriptive Social Norms in Healthcare Organizations
Bellè, N., & Cantarelli, P. (2021) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.13353 · Cited by 77
Jiang, X., Ding, Z., Li, X., Sun, J., Jiang, Y., Liu, R., Wang, D., Wang, Y., & Sun, W. (2019) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119069 · Cited by 80
Niu, N., Fan, W., Ren, M., Li, M., & Zhong, Y. (2023) · Psychology Research and Behavior Management · doi:10.2147/prbm.s411640 · Cited by 97
Paternalism and Energy Efficiency: An Overview
Allcott, H. (2016) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-080315-015255 · Cited by 73
“Equation (2) can also be re-written as:”
InfluentialSelf-citationThe value of environmental status signaling
Delgado, M. S., Harriger-Lin, J., & Khanna, N. (2015) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.12.021 · Cited by 75
“They use market shares of the Prius and Civic hybrid in different communities that may 4Behavioral demand drivers in an environmental context has also been studied by, for example, Clark, Kotchen & Moore (2003), Kotchen & Moore (2007), Allcott (2011) and Jacobsen et al. (2012).”
BackgroundInfluentialHousehold energy efficiency interventions: A systematic literature review
McAndrew, R., Mulcahy, R. F., Gordon, R., & Russell‐Bennett, R. (2021) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112136 · Cited by 76
Green Identity Labeling, Environmental Information, and Pro-environmental Food Choices
Lin, W. T., & Nayga, R. M. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-95-7151-2_13 · Cited by 82
Is social norms marketing effective?
Harries, T., Rettie, R., Studley, M., Burchell, K., & Chambers, S. (2013) · European Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1108/ejm-10-2011-0568 · Cited by 76
“The research suggests that earlier studies by Nolan et al. (2008), Ayres et al. (2009) and Allcott (2011) exaggerated the efficacy of the approach because EJM 47,9 1468 they failed to control for the influence of individual feedback and thus confounded the effects of social norms feedback and…”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialEhret, P. J., Hodges, H., Kuehl, C., Brick, C., Mueller, S., & Anderson, S. E. (2020) · Environment and Behavior · doi:10.1177/0013916519896868 · Cited by 82
“Most studies were underpowered given the expected small effects found among similar studies in the energy domain (about a 2% reduction; Allcott, 2009).”
BackgroundKurokawa, H., Igei, K., Kitsuki, A., Kurita, K., Managi, S., Nakamuro, M., & Sakano, A. (2022) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116612 · Cited by 77
The human factor: Classification of European community-based behaviour change initiatives
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Ayal, S., Celse, J., & Hochman, G. (2019) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.10.003 · Cited by 75
Oehman, J. M., Babbitt, C. W., & Flynn, C. (2022) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106492 · Cited by 92
“Social group feed-back, also called norm messaging (Sintov et al., 2019; Thomas and Sharp, 2013), has been effective to motivate consumers to participate in energy saving behavior (Allcott, 2011).”
Assessing the macroeconomic impacts of individual behavioral changes on carbon emissions
Niamir, L., Kiesewetter, G., Wagner, F., Schöpp, W., Filatova, T., Voinov, A. A., & Bressers, H. T. A. (2019) · Climatic Change · doi:10.1007/s10584-019-02566-8 · Cited by 74
“Understanding how the structure of social networks initiated based on friendship, family, and other relationships beyond the spatial distance (Allcott 2011; Jachimowicz et al. 2018) alone is a prominent future research direction, potentially supported by big data form social media.”
BackgroundBernheim, B. D., & Taubinsky, D. (2012) · Handbook of behavioral economics · doi:10.1016/bs.hesbe.2018.07.002 · Cited by 82
Nudging Energy Efficiency Behavior: Role of Information LabelsPreprint
Newell, R. G., & Siikamäki, J. (2014) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2467676 · Cited by 74
“In research regarding vehicle fuel efficiency, Allcott (2011a) finds that consumers are poorly informed about the financial value of fuel efficiency, typically substantially misestimating the gasoline cost difference between the vehicle they own and other potentially preferred vehicles.”
BackgroundBeshears, J. L., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., & Madrian, B. C. (2018) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w24854 · Cited by 76
The Effect of Framing and Normative Messages in Building Support for Climate Policies
Hurlstone, M. J., Lewandowsky, S., Newell, B. R., & Sewell, B. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0114335 · Cited by 84
“For example, a normative message about average neighbourhood energy consumption has been shown to reduce energy use amongst households with above-average consumption [27–29].”
BackgroundGhesla, C., Grieder, M., & Schubert, R. (2019) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2019.104616 · Cited by 72
“…makers and retailers in electricity markets have started to make increasing use of behaviorally-guided policy instruments to nudge people in socially desirable ways (see, e.g., Allcott, 2011; Costa and Kahn, 2013; Momsen and Stoerk, 2014; Newell and Siikamäki, 2014; Sunstein and Reisch, 2013).”
Budging beliefs, nudging behaviour
Hauser, O., Gino, F., & Norton, M. I. (2018) · Mind & Society · doi:10.1007/s11299-019-00200-9 · Cited by 71
“2018), and reducing energy and water usage by comparing nearby household usage (Allcott 2011; Allcott and Rogers 2014; Bhanot 2017b; Jachimowicz et al.”
BackgroundDorner, Z. (2019) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2019.102257 · Cited by 78
Combating Procrastination on Massive Online Open Courses via Optimal Calls to Action
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Kahn, M. E., & Walsh, R. (2015) · Handbook of regional and urban economics · doi:10.1016/b978-0-444-59517-1.00007-6 · Cited by 90
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Zivin, J. G., & Novan, K. (2015) · The Energy Journal · doi:10.5547/01956574.37.4.jziv · Cited by 72
“While several related studies reveal that behavioral treatments used in isolation can provide modest reductions in consumption ([1], [3], [9]), none have explored how the treatments interact with energy efficiency improvements.”
Sparkman, G., & Attari, S. Z. (2019) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2019.101290 · Cited by 74
“Research on social influence finds that learning about others’ decarbonizing actions, such as a more efficient neighbors’ household energy usage [16] and the efforts of others to consume less meat [17], can lead people to follow in suit.”
BackgroundBehavioral spillover effects from a social information campaign
Carlsson, F., Jaime, M., & Villegas‐Palacio, C. (2020) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2020.102325 · Cited by 71
Kong, D., Feng, Q., Zhou, Y. J., & Xue, L. (2016) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.112 · Cited by 70
Bauwens, T., & Eyre, N. (2017) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.03.006 · Cited by 76
“…economic and behavioral interventions on the energy consumption of CBE members, along the lines of the behavioral intervention programs for energy efficiency run in the United States by the cooperatively-owned utility Connexus Energy and the energy efficiency company Opower (see e.g. Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundHuber, J. C., Viscusi, W. K., & Bell, J. (2018) · Behavioural Public Policy · doi:10.1017/bpp.2017.13 · Cited by 68
“Allcott (2011) found similar effects in a large sample (600,000) of US households, and the substantial long-term effects on energy usage were equivalent to the impact of a 5% rate increase. Allcott’s study coupled descriptive norm information about neighbors’ behavior with societal injunctive norms generated by a “smi…”
BackgroundInfluentialMock meat in the butchery: Nudging consumers toward meat substitutes
Vandenbroele, J., Slabbinck, H., Kerckhove, A. V., & Vermeir, I. (2019) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.09.004 · Cited by 79
Xu, J., & Han, R. (2019) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph16245100 · Cited by 71
“In fact, as analyzed in the previous article, social media can play a greater role in pro-environmental behavior because of its social comparative function [29] and social display function [27] etc.”
BackgroundNudging and boosting for equity? Towards a behavioural economics of energy justice
Valle, N. D., & Sareen, S. (2020) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2020.101589 · Cited by 74
Helping eco-labels to fulfil their promises
Grolleau, G., Ibanez, L., Mzoughi, N., & Teisl, M. F. (2015) · Climate Policy · doi:10.1080/14693062.2015.1033675 · Cited by 79
“The effect was equivalent to that of a short-run electricity price increase of 11–20%, with a very attractive cost-effectiveness compared to that of traditional energy conservation programmes (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundThe challenges of behavioural insights for effective policy design
Kuehnhanss, C. R. (2018) · Policy and Society · doi:10.1080/14494035.2018.1511188 · Cited by 82
“price increases (Allcott, 2011). However, they may be ineffective or even backfire if the underlying norms are not shared by the entire target group, as Costa and Kahn (2013) find when political conservatives in the United States were nudged to save energy.”
BackgroundCharting pathways to climate change mitigation in a coupled socio-climate model
Bury, T. M., Bauch, C. T., & Anand, M. (2019) · PLoS Computational Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007000 · Cited by 79
Energy Savings from Feedback Systems: A Meta-Studies’ Review
Zangheri, P., Tiago, R. S., & Bertoldi, P. (2019) · Energies · doi:10.3390/en12193788 · Cited by 70
Wen, H., Wang, C., & Nie, P. (2021) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112301 · Cited by 69
Managing the distributional effects of climate policies: A narrow path to a just transition
Vona, F. (2022) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107689 · Cited by 82
Statistical Estimation of the Residential Baseline
Hatton, L., Charpentier, P., & Matzner-Løber, É. (2015) · IEEE Transactions on Power Systems · doi:10.1109/tpwrs.2015.2453889 · Cited by 69
“While baseline estimation methods relying on randomized control groups provide accurate results [5], [10], deploying a randomized control group for an operational use is not possible.”
BackgroundMethodPalmer, K., & Walls, M. A. (2016) · Energy Efficiency · doi:10.1007/s12053-016-9480-5 · Cited by 66
“Moreover, peer effects have also been shown to influence energy consumption (Allcott 2011; Costa and Kahn 2013, Ayres et al. 2013), thus if building owners see their energy use benchmarked against other buildings, this may reinforce the attentiveness effect.”
BackgroundSpillovers from Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Water and Energy Use
Jessoe, K., Lade, G., Loge, F. J., & Spang, E. S. (2020) · Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · doi:10.1086/711025 · Cited by 67
“The estimated impact falls within the range of treatment effects reported from the deployment of home energy reports focused exclusively on energy consumption and conservation (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialConsumers’ perceptions of energy use and energy savings: A literature review
Lesic, V., de Bruin, W. B., Davis, M. C., Krishnamurti, T., & Azevedo, I. L. (2018) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aaab92 · Cited by 76
“Similar patterns of findings have also been reported with regards fuel consumption (Allcott 2011, Larrick and Soll 2008) and water use (Attari 2014).”
MethodResultA theoretical framework of decision making explaining the mechanisms of nudging
Löfgren, Å., & Nordblom, K. (2020) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2020.03.021 · Cited by 67
Chan, H., Udall, A. M., & Tam, K. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101750 · Cited by 74
Systematic review of conservation interventions to promote voluntary behavior change
Thomas‐Walters, L., McCallum, J., Montgomery, R., Petros, C., Wan, A. K. Y., & Veríssimo, D. (2022) · Conservation Biology · doi:10.1111/cobi.14000 · Cited by 77
“While important, these policies can be resource66 intensive and require political will to implement (Allcott, 2011; Schubert, 2017).”
BackgroundThe power of social norms for reducing and shifting electricity use
Horne, C., & Kennedy, E. H. (2017) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2017.04.029 · Cited by 73
Social norms with private values: Theory and experiments
D’Adda, G., Dufwenberg, M. A., Passarelli, F., & Tabellini, G. (2020) · Games and Economic Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.geb.2020.08.012 · Cited by 63
“3 These setting range from energy and water consumption (Allcott, 2011; Ayres et al., 2013; Ferraro and Price, 2013; Ferraro et al., 2011), to contributions to charitable causes (Frey and Meier, 2004; Shang and Croson, 2009), voting (Gerber and Rogers, 2009) and financial decisions (Beshears et al.”
BackgroundFactors influencing perceptions of domestic energy information: Content, source and process
Simcock, N., MacGregor, S., Catney, P., et al. (2013) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.038 · Cited by 67
Can social norm interventions promote voluntary pro environmental action?
Huber, R. A., Anderson, B., & Bernauer, T. (2018) · Environmental Science & Policy · doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2018.07.016 · Cited by 68
“Allcott and colleagues (Allcott, 2011; Allcott and Rogers, 2014), for example, find positive effects of group information on individuals’ energy consumption behaviour in the USA.”
BackgroundNudging to promote household waste source separation: Mechanisms and spillover effects
Zhang, Z., & Wang, X. (2020) · Resources, Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105054 · Cited by 61
Mills, S. (2020) · Behavioural Public Policy · doi:10.1017/bpp.2020.61 · Cited by 67
“9 Benefit is taken here to broadly mean welfare, which follows the general treatment of nudges in the literature (Allcott & Kessler, 2019; Sunstein, 2020) and in how Beggs (2016) deploys these terms. 10 This is something of a reversal of Rebonato’s (2014) argument. Rebonato (2014) criticizes nudging by government beca…”
BackgroundInfluentialBridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: Policy Insights from Economic Theory and Empirical EvidencePreprint
Gillingham, K. T., & Palmer, K. (2013) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2206995 · Cited by 65
Caferra, R., Colasante, A., & Morone, A. (2020) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2020.101812 · Cited by 70
Dark patterns in online shopping: do they work and can nudges help mitigate impulse buying?
Sin, R., Harris, T., Nilsson, S., & Beck, T. (2022) · Behavioural Public Policy · doi:10.1017/bpp.2022.11 · Cited by 77
“Social norms are one of the most commonly used nudges and have been applied to a wide variety of settings ranging from energy conservation (Allcott, 2011) to voting (Gerber & Rogers, 2009).”
Cultural evolution of normative motivations for sustainable behaviour
Davis, T., Hennes, E. P., & Raymond, L. (2018) · Nature Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0061-9 · Cited by 67
Katz, D. L., Grinstein, A., Kronrod, A., & Nisan, U. (2016) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.05.049 · Cited by 64
“Studies looking at other types of natural resource conservation awareness campaigns provide some preliminary evidence about the potentially cost-effective manner in which campaigns can modify consumption patterns (e.g., Allcott and Mullainathan, 2010; Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundInfluentialNudging Early Reduces Administrative Burden: Three Field Experiments to Improve Code Enforcement
Linos, E., Quan, L. T., & Kirkman, E. (2019) · Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · doi:10.1002/pam.22178 · Cited by 65
“There are ample examples in the literature of people taking cues on how to behave from their neighbors (for example, Allcott 2011, and Agarwal et al., 2018).”
BackgroundMatching green messages with brand positioning to improve brand evaluation
da Luz, V. V., Mantovani, D., & Nepomuceno, M. V. (2020) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.07.024 · Cited by 72
Serious Games in Breaking Informational Barriers in Solar EnergyPreprint
Rai, V., & Beck, A. L. (2016) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2017.03.001 · Cited by 71
SODA WARS: THE EFFECT OF A SODA TAX ELECTION ON UNIVERSITY BEVERAGE SALES
Taylor, R., Kaplan, S. M., Villas‐Boas, S. B., & Jung, K. (2019) · Economic Inquiry · doi:10.1111/ecin.12776 · Cited by 70
“Third, the results in this paper are consistent with the rich literature on peer effects and social norms, and how these effects may lead to changes in consumption behavior (Rosenquist et al. 2010; Christakis and Fowler 2008; Allcott 2011).”
Costa, D. L., & Kahn, M. E. (2010) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w15939 · Cited by 65
Case-based flipped classroom approach to teach sustainable infrastructure and decision-making
McWhirter, N., & Shealy, T. (2018) · International Journal of Construction Education and Research · doi:10.1080/15578771.2018.1487892 · Cited by 67
“For example, Opower, a for-profit company, leverages social norms to help homeowners reduce energy consumption, saving Utility companies millions and reducing the need for more power plants (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundPro-environmental incentives and loss aversion: A field experiment on electricity saving behavior
Ghesla, C., Grieder, M., Schmitz, J., & Stadelmann, M. (2019) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111131 · Cited by 74
Machine Learning about Treatment Effect Heterogeneity: The Case of Household Energy Use
Knittel, C. R., & Stolper, S. (2021) · AEA Papers and Proceedings · doi:10.1257/pandp.20211090 · Cited by 64
Effectiveness of behavioural interventions to reduce household energy demand: a scoping review
Composto, J. W., & Weber, E. U. (2022) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac71b8 · Cited by 65
“The Opower study, perhaps the prototypical study of the impact of social norms on household energy consumption, finds 2% reduction in total household electricity use (Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundInfluentialModels of the user: designers' perspectives on influencing sustainable behaviour
Lockton, D., Harrison, D. J., & Stanton, N. A. (2012) · J of Design Research · doi:10.1504/jdr.2012.046137 · Cited by 69
“, Allcott, 2010), building on the work of Schultz et al. (2007), gives electricity and gas customers ‘neighbourhood comparisons’ of their energy use.”
BackgroundHarnessing the Power of Reputation: Strengths and Limits for Promoting Cooperative Behaviors
Barclay, P. (2012) · Evolutionary Psychology · doi:10.1177/147470491201000509 · Cited by 67
“…they give more money to radio fundraising when told about others’ high contributions (Shang and Croson, 2006), and make more proenvironmental decisions like cutting energy usage or re-using hotel towels when told that most others do so (Allcott, 2011; Goldstein, Griskevicius, and Cialdini, 2007).”
BackgroundSocial comparisons, status and driving behavior
Chen, Y., Lu, F., & Zhang, J. (2017) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.08.005 · Cited by 58
Valle, N. D., & Zubaryeva, A. (2019) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2019.05.005 · Cited by 63
Ingendahl, M., Hummel, D., Maedche, A., & Vogel, T. (2020) · Journal of Consumer Behaviour · doi:10.1002/cb.1861 · Cited by 69
“, 2015), to reduce energy consumption (Allcott, 2011) or littering behavior (Cialdini et al.”
BackgroundNudges for COVID-19 voluntary vaccination: How to explain peer information?
Sasaki, S., Saito, T., & Ohtake, F. (2021) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114561 · Cited by 74
“” Several experimental studies have shown that social comparison nudges effectively promote prosocial behaviors, including energy-saving, charitable donations, and tax-paying (Allcott, 2011; Hallsworth et al., 2017; Shang and Croson, 2009).”
Leveraging social cognition to promote effective climate change mitigation
Boon-Falleur, M., Grandin, A., Baumard, N., & Chevallier, C. (2022) · Nature Climate Change · doi:10.1038/s41558-022-01312-w · Cited by 78
Yang, M., Chen, H., Long, R., Sun, Q., & Yang, J. (2022) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115642 · Cited by 63
Timm, S., & Deal, B. M. (2016) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2016.04.020 · Cited by 63
Announcements of Support and Public Good Provision
Kessler, J. B. (2017) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20130711 · Cited by 59
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
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