Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour

AbstractHousehold energy conservation has emerged as a major challenge and opportunity for researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Consumers also seem to be gaining greater awareness of the value and need for sustainable energy practices, particularly amid growing public concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Yet even with adequate knowledge of how to save energy and a professed desire to do so, many consumers still fail to take noticeable steps towards energy efficiency and conservation. There is often a sizeable discrepancy between peoples’ self-reported knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions, and their observable behaviour—examples include the well-known ‘knowledge-action gap’ and ‘value-action gap’. But neither is household energy consumption driven primarily by financial incentives and the rational pursuit of material interests. In fact, people sometimes respond in unexpected and undesirable ways to rewards and sanctions intended to shift consumers’ cost–benefit calculus in favour of sustainable behaviours. Why is this so? Why is household energy consumption and conservation difficult to predict from either core values or material interests? By drawing on critical insights from behavioural economics and psychology, we illuminate the key cognitive biases and motivational factors that may explain why energy-related behaviour so often fails to align with either the personal values or material interests of consumers. Understanding these psychological phenomena can make household and community responses to public policy interventions less surprising, and in parallel, can help us design more cost-effective and mass-scalable behavioural solutions to encourage renewable and sustainable energy use among consumers

Cognitive and affective regulation: scale validation and nomological network analysis

This research examined the nomological network of cognitive and affective regulation with two scales developed to operationalise these constructs within complex performance domains. Data demonstrated that cognitive and affective regulation were differentially related to self-regulatory, affective, and achievement variables at the inter- and intra-individual levels. Psychometric properties of each scale were supported via confirmatory factor analyses and multilevel modeling. Study 1 established support for internal consistency, unidimensionality, and construct validity; Study 2 cross-validated the scales in a different performance context; and Study 3 demonstrated utility for capturing intra-individual changes in self-regulation and predicting performance. This research highlights the importance of examining cognitive and affective regulation at the intra-individual level of analysis; and the new measures provide a valid tool for advancing progress in this area. © 2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Revie

Development and validation of the cognitive and affective regulation scales

This research examined the nomological network of cognitive and affective regulation with two scales developed to operationalize these constructs within complex performance domains. Data demonstrated that cognitive and affective regulation were differentially related to self-regulatory, affective and achievement variables at the inter- and intra-individual levels. Psychometric properties of each scale were supported via confirmatory factor analyses and multi-level modeling. Study 1 established support for internal consistency, unidimensionality and construct validity; and Study 2 demonstrated utility for capturing intra-individual changes in self-regulation and for predicting performance. This research highlights the importance of examining cognitive and affective regulation at the intra-individual level of analysis; and the new measures provide a valid tool for advancing progress in this area

Exploring Everyday Energy Usage Practices in Australian Households: A Qualitative Analysis

In recent years, energy conservation research has identified a number of household actions that have the potential to drive significant reductions in carbon emissions in the near-term, without requiring substantial changes to householders’ lifestyles or imposing significant financial costs. In this qualitative study, we investigate the potential of some of these actions for behavioral modification by asking householders to reveal the reasons why they perform (or fail to perform) such actions. As part of a telephone survey, a sample of customers (n = 1541) from an Australian energy retailer were asked about their reasons for engaging in specific energy usage practices in one of five household domains: laundry, kitchen, bathroom, space heating/cooling or general appliance usage. Qualitative analyses of participants’ open-ended responses revealed that practices in the laundry and kitchen appear to hold the greatest promise for behavioral change, whereas practices in the shower may be more challenging to modify. Integrating our findings with current psychological and sociological knowledge, we present a range of possibilities for future behavior change interventions at the practice-level

A dynamic, self-regulatory model of affect and performance: interactions between states, traits and task demands

State-trait consistency and valence principles were integrated within a dynamic self-regulatory framework to predict interactive effects of state affect, trait affect and task demands on performance. State affect and performance were measured repeatedly as individuals completed a complex and dynamic decision-making task. Task demands were manipulated at the within-person level. The beneficial effect of state positive affect was strongest for individuals with high trait positive affect; however this effect was only evident under high task demands. The detrimental effect of state negative affect was weakest for individuals with high trait negative affect, with this effect being constant across task demand levels. This study demonstrated that state-trait inconsistency can be bad for individuals with high trait positive affect and consistency can be good for individuals with high trait negative affect

Strategic defensiveness: Public and private responses to group criticism

This paper explores the strategic processes associated with responding to group criticism. In Experiment 1, Australians received criticism of their country from either an in-group or an out-group member. When participants believed their evaluations of the criticisms were private, they reported being more defensive when criticized by an out-group relative to an in-group member. However, this intergroup sensitivity effect disappeared on some measures when participants were led to believe their evaluations of the criticisms could be seen by an in-group audience. In Experiment 2, which focused on participants' identity as social science students, the attenuation of the intergroup sensitivity effect emerged only when the in-group audience was relatively high-status. Furthermore, in both experiments, increased reports of defensiveness in public only occurred in response to an in-group critic and not to an out-group critic. Theoretical and practical implications for intergroup and intragroup communication are discussed

Internal and External Barriers to Energy Efficiency: Made-to-Measure Policy Interventions

This paper has two objectives. First it provides a correlation between internal and external barriers to energy efficiency and consumer behaviour related to two domains. It evaluates behaviour related to energy curtailment, which represents routine, repetitive effort to decrease consumption on a day-to-day basis. It also considers behaviour related to investments, which are one time actions such as purchasing new energy efficiency technologies.. Second, it assesses the effectiveness of the different interventions and programs in addressing the two types of barriers (internal and external) with the aim of informing the policy debate. By assessing the value of a large number of interventions, this paper is one of the first that combines in a unified framework the main findings of different disciplines, from economics to psychology