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Feedback and Goal-setting Interventions to Reduce Electricity Use in the Real World

Behavior and Social Issues

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Field Value
 
Title Feedback and Goal-setting Interventions to Reduce Electricity Use in the Real World
 
Creator Frazer, Patricia
Leslie, Julian
 
Subject Behavior Analysis; Psychology
environmental action; feedback; goal-setting; energy use
 
Description A field experiment explored the effect of feedback and goal-setting interventions on residential electricity use in households in Northern Ireland. Alternating orders of presentation of feedback and no feedback conditions were used to explore the longer-term effect of feedback on conservation performance. Group 1 received 5 months of feedback followed by 5 months of no feedback, Group 2 underwent 5 months of no feedback followed by 5 months of feedback, and Group 3 experienced alternating 2-month periods of feedback and no feedback over 10 months, using a reversal design. Group 1 saved a mean 9.54% of electricity during the feedback condition, but Group 2 increased their use by a mean 14.24%. Group 3 showed a pattern of cumulative reductions over successive feedback periods, with a mean reduction in electricity use of 33%. Participants in Group 3 did not show a return to baseline levels of electricity use during the no feedback condition. The importance of exploring different reactions to feedback is discussed.
 
Publisher University of Illinois at Chicago Library
 
Contributor Northern Ireland Electricity PLC
The Energy Saving Trust
 
Date 2014-09-07
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/bsi/article/view/4324
10.5210/bsi.v23i0.4324
 
Source Behavior and Social Issues; Vol 23 (2014); 20-34
1064-9506
 
Language eng
 
Relation https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/bsi/article/view/4324/4118