Turbocharging Social Comparison Information : Experimental Evidence on Residential Energy and Water Use

We employ a unique field experimental setting to study the spillover effects of social comparisons on energy and water use in the residential sector. We find that electricity use-targeted social comparison induces conservation beyond electricity, leading to substantial reductions in energy use for water and space heating. Meanwhile, water use-targeted social comparison induces little or no effects on electricity, water, and space heating. We argue that the differences of the two treatments concerning the effects on the targeted resource use and the spillover effects can be explained by the differences in preexisting social norms and moral dissonance. The analysis of heterogeneity of the spillover effects reveals that the impacts of social comparison information are more pronounced among households at the higher percentiles of resource use. Overall, our results suggest that spillover effects on resource use could be as large as direct effects of behavioral interventions if society has strong, preexisting social norms to conserve the targeted resource