Automatically Green: Behavioral Economics and Environmental Protection

Sunstein, Cass R.; Reisch, Lucia A.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2245657

Cited by 134 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

138

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Similarly, Lofgren and colleagues [35] found that default choice framing for carbon offsets did not influence offset purchases among experienced consumers (i.e., environmental economists), and concluded that experience in a given domain can attenuate the default effect. This aligns with work suggesting that some individuals may actually enjoy information gathering, weighing choice alternatives, and making a decision on their own ("market mavens") [36]. For instance, some smart home occupants perceive that automation is "dumbing down" their experience [3], and value the ability to make their own decisions about the functions of smart home technologies.…”

Section: Moderators Of the Default Effectsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Similar to the effect of experience, researchers argue that "insurmountable attitudes" [38] should attenuate the effect of a default [36]. However, experimental work has found that attitude strength only overrides the default effect among those with extremely strong attitudes (i.e., top 7%) and only for very specific attitudes (i.e., toward renewable energy vs. general environmental attitudes) [39].…”

Section: Moderators Of the Default Effectmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Adjustable Green Defaults Can Help Make Smart Homes More Sustainable

Sintov

Schultz

2017

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Smart home technologies offer exciting opportunities to promote more efficient uses of energy. For instance, programmable thermostats, centralized lighting controls, and rooftop solar panels all have potential for energy conservation and efficiency. However, these technologies alone will not guarantee energy savings. Whereas previous research on smart homes has focused on the technologies themselves, relatively little work has addressed the factors that shape the human-technology interface. In this review paper, we argue that in order to ensure any savings, smart home technologies must first be adopted by end-users, and once adopted, they must be used in ways that promote energy efficiency. We focus on three areas of behavioral research with implications for smart home technologies: (1) defaults; (2) perceived adjustability or control; and (3) trust in automation. Linking these areas, we propose a new concept for improving the efficiency gains of smart homes. First, although smart device controls can help save energy, considerably larger energy efficiency gains can be realized through smart automation. But importantly, the default settings of systems should be "green", to maximize energy savings. Second, many people have concerns around relinquishing decision-making to technologies, which can reduce the likelihood of adoption. People want to be, or at least to feel, in control of their homes, even if they do not adjust settings post-installation. Further, consumer trust in technologies encourages adoption in the first place; trust also impacts consumer interactions with installed devices and can impact default acceptance. Combining these concepts, we recommend that smart home technologies build consumer trust and come pre-programmed with adjustable green defaults, which permit consumers to change initial green settings.

show abstract

Section: Moderators Of the Default Effectsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Moderators Of the Default Effectmentioning

confidence: 96%

Adjustable Green Defaults Can Help Make Smart Homes More Sustainable

Sintov

Schultz

2017

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This default saved than 7 million pages in one semester, or 620 trees (CAS 2011). Sunstein and Reisch (2013) provide several other examples of defaults in the context of green energy, paper savings and smart grids.…”

Section: Default Options and Related Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Environmental Economics: Promises and Challenges

Croson

Treich

2014

Environ Resource Econ

139

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Environmental issues provide a rich ground for identifying the existence and consequences of human limitations. In this paper, we present a growing literature lying at the interface between behavioral and environmental economics. This literature identifies alternative solutions to traditional economic instruments in environmental domains that often work imperfectly. But it also faces a set of challenges, including the difficulty of computing welfare effects, and the identification of a robust environmental policy based on context-dependent (socio-) psychological effects. We illustrate our critical discussion with two behavioral schemes that have been widely implemented: "green nudges" and "corporate environmental responsibility."

show abstract

“…At first sight, this point seems intuitive: After all, nudges are most effective in situations where individuals lack complete preferences -in that case, nudges interfere with processes of preference formation. In the limit, this interference may substitute the nudger's 55 See also Sunstein and Reisch (2014). 56 Attari et al (2009) found that subjects preferred soft to hard regulation (note, however, that 'soft regulation' included non-nudges such as monetary incentives, see ibid.).…”

Section: Do Nudges Compromise People's 'Autonomy'?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Nudges: Do They Work? Are They Ethical?

Schubert

2016

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Real-world consumers, though, are motivated by more than incentives and information (Michalek et al. 2015). These are innovative policy tools that are designed with a specific focus on behavioral factors 1 Most economist readers can be assumed to be familiar with the key insights of Behavioral Economics; those interested in the details may be referred to the excellent surveys by Camerer and Loewenstein (2004) and Della Vigna (2009). Van den Bergh et al. (2000) give an outline of behavioral economics insights with a focus on their relevance for environmental economics prior to Nudge. The contributions by Norton et al. (1998) and Söderbaum (1994) are particularly interesting as precursors of the nudge agenda, as they argue that environmental policies should try to exploit endogenous preference change. 2 An important exception to that rule was Jack Knetsch, see, e.g. Knetsch and Sinden (1984), Knetsch (1989 and structured. To nudge someone is to deliberately intervene in a given CA. Nudges are widely regarded as potential complements to more traditional incentive-based regulation; the hope is that adding them to the policy mix may be both more effective and more popular among the general public than relying on traditional regulatory tools alone (Thaler and Sunstein 2008: ch. 12). 6 As Cass Sunstein (2014: 13) puts it, the general aim is to develop "sensible, low-cost policies with close reference to how human beings actually think and behave." There is an important caveat, though: Due to their unclear welfare foundations and the potentially paternalistic and manipulative way in which these tools shape human behavior (viz., by addressing and exploiting cognitive biases), nudges raise complex ethical questions. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor mayThe exact definition of nudges is a matter of some controversy. What's typically offered as a back-of-the-envelope definition -"interventions that influence people's behavior without significantly changing their monetary incentives or coercing them" -is unhelpful, as it also lets the mere provision of information count as a nudge. We rather suggest to follow Hansen (2016) by supplementing this shorthand with the notion, originally advanced by Thaler and Sunstein (2008: 8) To illustrate, the subsidy and tax schemes discussed by Allcott and Taubinsky (2015) in the context of energy efficiency policy qualify as BEP in our sense of the term. 5 See in particular (ibid.: ch. 12) on green nudging, and Sunstein (201...

show abstract

Automatically Green: Behavioral Economics and Environmental Protection

Cited by 134 publications

References 1 publication

Adjustable Green Defaults Can Help Make Smart Homes More Sustainable

Adjustable Green Defaults Can Help Make Smart Homes More Sustainable

Behavioral Environmental Economics: Promises and Challenges

Green Nudges: Do They Work? Are They Ethical?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About