Energy conservation goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and why
Failures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by adopting policies, technologies, and lifestyle changes have led the world to the brink of crisis, or likely beyond. Here we use Internet surveys to attempt to understand these failures by studying factors that affect the adoption of personal energy cons...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2016-07-01
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| Series: | Judgment and Decision Making |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.sjdm.org/16/16326/jdm16326.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797761175004381184 |
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| author | Shahzeen Z. Attari David H. Krantz Elke U. Weber |
| author_facet | Shahzeen Z. Attari David H. Krantz Elke U. Weber |
| author_sort | Shahzeen Z. Attari |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Failures to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by adopting policies, technologies, and lifestyle
changes have led the world to the brink of crisis, or likely beyond. Here we
use Internet surveys to attempt to understand these failures by studying
factors that affect the adoption of personal energy conservation behaviors and
also endorsement of energy conservation goals proposed for others. We
demonstrate an asymmetry between goals for self and others (“I’ll do the easy
thing, you do the hard thing”), but we show that this asymmetry is partly
produced by actor/observer differences: people know what they do already (and
generally do not propose those actions as personal goals) and also know their
own situational constraints that are barriers to action. We also show, however,
that endorsement of conservation goals decreases steeply as a function of
perceived difficulty; this suggests a role for motivated cognition as a barrier
to conservation: difficult things are perceived as less applicable to one’s
situation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T19:09:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6c528de8bbe941bca0f2ab1f50a90dfb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1930-2975 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T19:09:08Z |
| publishDate | 2016-07-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Judgment and Decision Making |
| spelling | doaj.art-6c528de8bbe941bca0f2ab1f50a90dfb2023-08-02T06:02:24ZengCambridge University PressJudgment and Decision Making1930-29752016-07-01114342351Energy conservation goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and whyShahzeen Z. AttariDavid H. KrantzElke U. WeberFailures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by adopting policies, technologies, and lifestyle changes have led the world to the brink of crisis, or likely beyond. Here we use Internet surveys to attempt to understand these failures by studying factors that affect the adoption of personal energy conservation behaviors and also endorsement of energy conservation goals proposed for others. We demonstrate an asymmetry between goals for self and others (“I’ll do the easy thing, you do the hard thing”), but we show that this asymmetry is partly produced by actor/observer differences: people know what they do already (and generally do not propose those actions as personal goals) and also know their own situational constraints that are barriers to action. We also show, however, that endorsement of conservation goals decreases steeply as a function of perceived difficulty; this suggests a role for motivated cognition as a barrier to conservation: difficult things are perceived as less applicable to one’s situation.http://journal.sjdm.org/16/16326/jdm16326.pdfenergy conservation actor/observer bias motivated reasoningNAKeywords |
| spellingShingle | Shahzeen Z. Attari David H. Krantz Elke U. Weber Energy conservation goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and why Judgment and Decision Making energy conservation actor/observer bias motivated reasoningNAKeywords |
| title | Energy conservation
goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and why |
| title_full | Energy conservation
goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and why |
| title_fullStr | Energy conservation
goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and why |
| title_full_unstemmed | Energy conservation
goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and why |
| title_short | Energy conservation
goals: What people adopt, what they recommend, and why |
| title_sort | energy conservation goals what people adopt what they recommend and why |
| topic | energy conservation actor/observer bias motivated reasoningNAKeywords |
| url | http://journal.sjdm.org/16/16326/jdm16326.pdf |
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