Why don’t Americans conserve energy and adopt energy-efficient technologies?

1. Why don’t Americans conserve energy and adopt energy-efficient technologies?

2. On why people do not act Information deficit model Motivation deficit model Don’t know how much I will save Don’t know what to do Don’t know how … Cost Time Effort Social norms …

3. Behaviors deemed “most effective” by participants Curtailment Efficiency

5. (Attari et al., 2010)

6. (Attari et al., 2010)

7. Laptops overestimated 2x (Attari et al., 2010)

8. Dishwashers underestimated 800x (Attari et al., 2010)

9. (Attari et al., 2010)

10. Findings: “In your opinion, what is the most effective thing that you could do to conserve energy in your life?” - Participants state: 55% “curtailment” 12% “efficiency” Gardener and Stern (2008): “efficiency saves more energy than curtailment”

11. Findings: Major misperceptions in energy consumption • People have small overestimates for • low-energy behaviors and large underestimates for high-energy behaviors •  many implications for technology, education, and policy

12. What you want to do vs. What others should do

13. Research questions • Would there be any systematic differences in how people answer the following two questions? • “In your opinion, what is the single most effective thing that you could do to use less energy in your life?” • “In your opinion, what is the most single most effective thing that Americans could do to use less energy in their lives?”

14. Predictions • If information deficits: • Distribution of responses should be similar for both questions • If motivated cognition: • Systematic differences in responses between questions (e.g., listing an easy non-effective behavior for self and a harder effective behavior for others)

15. Most effective behavior: Self vs. others

16. Most effective behavior: Self vs. others

17. Most effective action for self and other Americans Turn off (appliances and lights)Drive less (drive less, carpool, use public transportation, bike, and walk)

18. I’ll do the easy thing, you do the hard thing Individuals who choose the easier option for themselves are likely to ask others to do the harder thing. McNemar chi-square statistic for asymmetry 26.1, p < 0.0001

19. Findings: I’ll do the easy thing, you do the hard thing • People are motivated to list easier non-effective behaviors for themselves (e.g., turning off the light) and harder more effective behaviors for others (e.g., carpooling, driving less).

20. Part II : Communicating climate change

23. Likelihood predictions based on availability and ease of recall

24. In your opinion, which is a more likely cause of death in the US: • Falling airplane parts • Sharks • In your opinion which, is the cause of death that is more common in the US: • Car accidents • Stomach cancer • In your opinion, which is the cause of death that is more common in the US: • Tornado • Lightning

25. Conclusions: How to Approach the Motivation Deficit • Risk communication CAN be improved • Keep multiple goals in mind, look for co-benefits • No “one-size-fits-all” approach • Combinations of affective/experience-based and analytic information • Participatory processes to tailor information • Group decision context primes collective interests • Awareness of need for individual actions also builds awareness of need for collective action