Heating reduction as collective action: Impact on attitudes, behavior and energy consumption in a Polish field experiment
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866911123948699648 |
|---|---|
| author | Bielig, Mona Malewski, Lukasz Bandurski, Karol Kutzner, Florian Vogel, Melanie Klingert, Sonja Gorzenski, Radoslaw Kacperski, Celina |
| author_facet | Bielig, Mona Malewski, Lukasz Bandurski, Karol Kutzner, Florian Vogel, Melanie Klingert, Sonja Gorzenski, Radoslaw Kacperski, Celina |
| contents | Heating and hot water usage account for nearly 80% of household energy consumption in the European Union. In order to reach the EU New Deal goals, new policies to reduce heat energy consumption are indispensable. However, research targeting reductions concentrates either on technical building interventions without considerations of people's behavior, or psychological interventions with no technical interference. Such interventions can be promising, but their true potential for scaling up can only be realized by testing approaches that integrate behavioral and technical solutions in tandem rather than in isolation. In this research, we study a mix of psychological and technical interventions targeting heating and hot water demand among students in Polish university dormitories. We evaluate effects on building energy consumption, behavioral spillovers and on social beliefs and attitudes in a pre-post quasi-experimental mixed-method field study in three student dormitories. Our findings reveal that the most effective approaches to yield energy savings were a direct, collectively framed request to students to reduce thermostat settings for the environment, and an automated technical adjustment of the heating curve temperature. Conversely, interventions targeting domestic hot water had unintended effects, including increased energy use and negative spillovers, such as higher water consumption. Further, we find that informing students about their active, collective participation had a positive impact on perceived social norms. Our findings highlight the importance of trialing interventions in controlled real-world settings to understand the interplay between technical systems, behaviors, and social impacts to enable scalable, evidence-based policies driving an effective and sustainable energy transition. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_11016 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Heating reduction as collective action: Impact on attitudes, behavior and energy consumption in a Polish field experiment Bielig, Mona Malewski, Lukasz Bandurski, Karol Kutzner, Florian Vogel, Melanie Klingert, Sonja Gorzenski, Radoslaw Kacperski, Celina Emerging Technologies Computers and Society Heating and hot water usage account for nearly 80% of household energy consumption in the European Union. In order to reach the EU New Deal goals, new policies to reduce heat energy consumption are indispensable. However, research targeting reductions concentrates either on technical building interventions without considerations of people's behavior, or psychological interventions with no technical interference. Such interventions can be promising, but their true potential for scaling up can only be realized by testing approaches that integrate behavioral and technical solutions in tandem rather than in isolation. In this research, we study a mix of psychological and technical interventions targeting heating and hot water demand among students in Polish university dormitories. We evaluate effects on building energy consumption, behavioral spillovers and on social beliefs and attitudes in a pre-post quasi-experimental mixed-method field study in three student dormitories. Our findings reveal that the most effective approaches to yield energy savings were a direct, collectively framed request to students to reduce thermostat settings for the environment, and an automated technical adjustment of the heating curve temperature. Conversely, interventions targeting domestic hot water had unintended effects, including increased energy use and negative spillovers, such as higher water consumption. Further, we find that informing students about their active, collective participation had a positive impact on perceived social norms. Our findings highlight the importance of trialing interventions in controlled real-world settings to understand the interplay between technical systems, behaviors, and social impacts to enable scalable, evidence-based policies driving an effective and sustainable energy transition. |
| title | Heating reduction as collective action: Impact on attitudes, behavior and energy consumption in a Polish field experiment |
| topic | Emerging Technologies Computers and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.11016 |