Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings

In a national online survey, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation, and recycling activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 107; no. 37; pp. 16054 - 16059
Main Authors Attari, Shahzeen Z., DeKay, Michael L., Davidson, Cliff I., de Bruin, Wändi Bruine
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 14.09.2010
National Acad Sciences
SeriesFrom the Cover
Subjects
attitudes
Automobiles
Bottles
Carbon dioxide emissions
Climate change
Conservation of Energy Resources - economics
Consumer behavior
Data Collection
Energy conservation
Energy consumption
Energy efficiency
Habits
Household appliances
Judgment
Numeracy
Perception
Perceptions
Polls & surveys
Public opinion
Recycling
Savings
Social Sciences
United States
Waste management
United States
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Summary:In a national online survey, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation, and recycling activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contrast to experts' recomendations. For a sample of 15 activities, participants underestimated energy use and savings by a factor of 2.8 on average, with small overestimates for low-energy activities and large underestimates for high-energy activities. Additional estimation and ranking tasks also yielded relatively flat functions for perceived energy use and savings. Across several tasks, participants with higher numeracy scores and stronger proenvironmental attitudes had more accurate perceptions. The serious deficiencies highlighted by these results suggest that well-designed efforts to improve the public's understanding of energy use and savings could pay large dividends.
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Author contributions: S.Z.A., M.L.D., C.I.D., and W.B.d.B. designed research; S.Z.A. performed research; S.Z.A. and M.L.D. analyzed data; and S.Z.A., M.L.D., C.I.D., and W.B.d.B. wrote the paper.
2Present address: Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244.
Edited by William C. Clark, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved July 12, 2010 (received for review February 12, 2010)
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1001509107