Observing the unobservable: a field experiment on early adopters of a climate-friendly behavior
Year: 2021
Type: book
Abstract: Encouraging rapid and widespread adoption of non-normative climate-friendly behaviors represents a crucial challenge for practitioners and policymakers alike, and a new frontier in the transition to a greener economy. Yet, several such behaviors are unobservable and undertaken privately. We devise a novel approach that makes household renewable energy use visible to peers through yard signs and window clings, thus creating social rewards for early adopters and sending a signal within their communities. We implement a field experiment comprising over 20,000 customers of a renewable energy utility in the United Kingdom and find that a significant proportion are intrinsically motivated to put their invisible climate-friendly behavior on display. Indeed, participation and display are identical across treatments with and without a financial incentive.
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of Leeds, European Commission, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, AXA Research Fund, Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, University of Leeds, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, Economic and Social Research Council
OpenAlex ID: W3186029944