For better or for worse? Empirical evidence of moral licensing in a behavioral energy conservation campaign
[ABSTRACT READ IN FULL at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat CRIS record, which prints it entire; full text not read] Tiefenbeck, V., Staake, T., Roth, K., & Sachs, O. (2013). 'For better or for worse? Empirical evidence of moral licensing in a behavioral energy conservation campaign.' Energy Policy, 57, 160-171. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.021. The best field evidence for licensing in an environmental domain found on this pass, and the only item in the file with real households, real meters and a control group. A controlled field experiment at a multifamily residence, 154 apartments, drawing on daily water consumption data, 10,780 data points, and weekly electricity data, 1,386 data points. In their words: 'The results show that residents who received weekly feedback on their water consumption lowered their water use (6.0% on average), but at the same time increased their electricity consumption by 5.6% compared with control subjects. Income effects can be excluded.' Their hedge, which travels with it: 'While follow-up research is needed on the precise mechanism of the psychological process at work, the findings are consistent with the concept of moral licensing, which can more than offset the benefits of focused energy efficiency campaigns, at least in the short-term.' Hold it at the right angle: one building, the mechanism unestablished, 'consistent with' rather than demonstrating, and still a controlled field experiment with metered outcomes in which a successful environmental intervention produced a measurable cost in an adjacent domain.
[ABSTRACT READ IN FULL at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat CRIS record, which prints it entire; full text not read] Tiefenbeck, V., Staake, T., Roth, K., & Sachs, O. (2013). 'For better or for worse? Empirical evidence of moral licensing in a behavioral energy conservation campaign.' Energy Policy, 57, 160-171. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.021. The best field evidence for licensing in an environmental domain found on this pass, and the only item in the file with real households, real meters and a control group. A controlled field experiment at a multifamily residence, 154 apartments, drawing on daily water consumption data, 10,780 data points, and weekly electricity data, 1,386 data points. In their words: 'The results show that residents who received weekly feedback on their water consumption lowered their water use (6.0% on average), but at the same time increased their electricity consumption by 5.6% compared with control subjects. Income effects can be excluded.' Their hedge, which travels with it: 'While follow-up research is needed on the precise mechanism of the psychological process at work, the findings are consistent with the concept of moral licensing, which can more than offset the benefits of focused energy efficiency campaigns, at least in the short-term.' Hold it at the right angle: one building, the mechanism unestablished, 'consistent with' rather than demonstrating, and still a controlled field experiment with metered outcomes in which a successful environmental intervention produced a measurable cost in an adjacent domain.
Written from the aBSTRACT READ IN FULL at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat CRIS record, which prints it entire; full text not read.
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Tiefenbeck, V., Staake, T., Roth, K., & Sachs, O. (2013). For better or for worse? Empirical evidence of moral licensing in a behavioral energy conservation campaign. Energy Policy, 57, 160-171. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.021