Effects of simplifying outreach materials for energy conservation programs that target low-income consumers

Abstract

We thank Jack Wang, Barbara Bugosh and Denise Caruso for their help in conducting this research. 2 ABSTRACTCritics have speculated that the limited success of energy conservation programs among low-income consumers may partly be due to recipients having insufficient literacy to understand the outreach materials. Indeed, we found outreach materials for low-income consumers to require relatively high levels of reading comprehension. We therefore improved the FleschKincaid readability statistics for two outreach brochures, by using shorter words and shorter sentences to describe their content. We examined the effect of that simplification on low-income consumers' responses. Participants from low-income communities in the greater Pittsburgh area, who varied in literacy, were randomly assigned to either original communications about energy conservation programs or our simplified versions. Our findings suggest that lowering readability statistics successfully simplified only the more straightforward brochure in our set of two, likely because its content lent itself better to simplification. Findings for this brochure showed that simplification improved understanding of its content among both low-literacy and high-literacy recipients, without adversely affecting their evaluation of the materials, or their intention to enroll in the advertised programs. We discuss strategies for improving communication materials that aim to reach out to low-income populations.Keywords: Readability; Consumer Outreach; Energy Conservation 3 RESEARCH HIGLIGHTS Brochures about energy programs for low-income consumers can be too hard to read. We made brochures easier to read by using shorter words and shorter sentences. Simplifying a straightforward brochure improved the understanding of all recipients. However, simplifying a complex brochure had no effect on understanding. We suggest strategies for improving outreach to low-income consumers.

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