Electricity Consumption and Social Norms
Initial results from an ongoing Social Experiment in Cape Town
Grant Smith (EPRU)
Where did we get the idea?
We got the idea for this study from a smaller research project run in San Marcos, California by:
•P. Wesley Schultz, J. M. Nolan, R. Cialdini, N. J. Goldstein and V. Griskevicius
With electricity consumption.
•Sample size: 287
•Year: 2007
•Paper: The constructive, destructive and reconstructive power of social norms.
•Journal: Psychological Science. Vol. 18(5).
We first heard about the above research in chapter 3 of “Nudge”, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. Grant Smith (EPRU)
Where did we get the idea?
We got the idea for this study from a smaller research project run in San Marcos, California by:
•P. W. Schultz, J. M. Nolan, R. Cialdini, N. J. Goldstein and V. Griskevicius
With electricity consumption.
•Sample size: 287
•Year: 2007
•Paper: The constructive, destructive and reconstructive power of social norms.
•Journal: Psychological Science. Vol. 18(5).
Since rolled out by OPower in the USA, who provide a utility’s consumers with tailored energy feedback reports that incorporate much of Schultz et al.
Grant Smith (EPRU)
What are we doing?
Extending the USA strategies to •Lower Incomes
• Non smart metered contexts
We want to see if, in Cape Town, we can get households to use less electricity of
their own Free Will by referencing their consumption to Social Norms for
Electricity Consumption.
What are we doing?
We want to see if, in Cape Town, we can get households to use less electricity of
their own Free Will by referencing their consumption to Social Norms for
Electricity Consumption.
Two sorts of norms are investigated...
Descriptive Norms:
City
level.
Eg. The average household in
the City consumed 100kwh last
month
Your household consumed 200
kwh in the past month.
Your
household
consumed
more/less than the average.
Previous research has shown that people
will tend to alter their consumption towards
a reported norm. We report norms at two
levels of aggregation.
Neighbourhood
level.
Eg. The average household in
your neighbourhood consumed
425 kwh last month
Grant Smith (EPRU)
What are we doing?
We want to see if, in Cape Town, we can get households to use less electricity of
their own Free Will by referencing their consumption to Social Norms for
Electricity Consumption.
Two sorts of norms are investigated...
Descriptive Norms:
Eg. The average household in
the City consumed 100kwh last
month
City
level.
Your household consumed 200
kwh in the past month.
Your
household
consumed
more/less than the average.
Previous research has shown that people
will tend to alter their consumption towards
a reported norm. We report norms at two
levels of aggregation.
Neighbourhood
level.
and...
Injunctive norms
A smaller body of research has shown that the use of an injunctive norm will encourage those consuming less than average to continue consuming less than average, while still encouraging over consumers to reduce their consumption.


Eg. The average household in
your neighbourhood consumed
425 kwh last month
If under consuming
If over consuming
Grant Smith (EPRU)
What are we doing? (continued...)
• We report these norms via inserts placed in the electricity accounts of households in our
sample.
• In order to analyse the effect of the different sorts of norms we have 5 main treatment groups
of in our sample.
•The control group is made up of households from the same neighbourhoods* as those in our
sample
Cell
CD
CDI
Level of reporting
City
City
Descriptive
Descriptive and Injunctive
Norms reported
ND
NDI
Control
Neighbourhood Neighbourhood
Descriptive
* MRUs (meter reading units) are used as Neighbourhoods in our sample.
Descriptive and Injunctive
N/A
No Insert with bill.
Grant Smith (EPRU)
What is our sample?
• 13 319 Households
• 7532 in Treatment Sample
• 5787 in Control Sample (untreated households from the same neighbourhoods as the treated sample)
• 12 Suburbs
• From everywhere except Western and Eastern areas
• 3 Major Socio‐economic levels
• Each area’s 3 Major bands of domestic electricity consumption
Grant Smith (EPRU)
What is our sample?
Cell
A
B
C
D
Control
Level of reporting
City
City
Neighbourhood
Neighbourhood
N/A
Norms reported
Descriptive
Descriptive and Injunctive
Descriptive
Descriptive and Injunctive
No Insert with bill.
Constantia
60
67
54
63
60
Durbanville
108
95
85
96
1547
Pinelands
77
67
67
74
114
Tamboerskloof
79
85
90
95
416
Athlone
81
97
92
82
319
Bonthewul
55
40
50
61
68
Grassy Park
70
64
61
61
79
Heideveld
26
25
30
26
0
Salt River
38
39
42
46
273
Gugulethu
112
106
114
108
191
Langa
43
37
49
45
86
Mannenberg
45
48
47
55
Upper Middle
Lower
0
Grant Smith (EPRU)
What were the initial results?
1. Receiving any sort of norms feedback lowers consumption.
2. Middle Income and Lower income households respond strongest Jan‐April
Grant Smith (EPRU)
What were the initial results?
(continued...)
3. Mostly no significant difference between treatment types
4. Injunctive and city norm not playing well in low income
Jan‐April
Grant Smith (EPRU)