Conference Theme Track A: IS for Sustainability
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Paper Number
1351
Paper Type
Completed
Description
With the proliferation of smart meters that continuously track energy consumption data, smart meter user interfaces can leverage evaluative standards (i.e., measuring success relative to one’s previous performance vs. relative to the performance of others) as a design element for goal setting to motivate sustainable behaviors. Drawing on achievement goal theory, we conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment with 152 households to investigate how evaluative standards affect private households’ heating energy consumption. Our results suggest that basing a goal on others (vs. on oneself) is a double-edged sword: Whereas households who previously performed worse than average reduce their heating energy consumption more fiercely with an other-referencing goal, households who previously consumed better than average loosen their efforts compared to their peers with self-referencing goals. As such, our study contributes to Green IS research with novel insights on evaluative standards as design elements for smart meter user interfaces to shape actual resource consumption.
Recommended Citation
Wendt, Charlotte; Werner, Dominick; Adam, Martin; and Benlian, Alexander, "To Compare Against Oneself or Others? – Evaluative Standards as Design Elements to Affect Heating Energy Consumption" (2021). ICIS 2021 Proceedings. 2.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2021/is_sustain/is_sustain/2
To Compare Against Oneself or Others? – Evaluative Standards as Design Elements to Affect Heating Energy Consumption
With the proliferation of smart meters that continuously track energy consumption data, smart meter user interfaces can leverage evaluative standards (i.e., measuring success relative to one’s previous performance vs. relative to the performance of others) as a design element for goal setting to motivate sustainable behaviors. Drawing on achievement goal theory, we conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment with 152 households to investigate how evaluative standards affect private households’ heating energy consumption. Our results suggest that basing a goal on others (vs. on oneself) is a double-edged sword: Whereas households who previously performed worse than average reduce their heating energy consumption more fiercely with an other-referencing goal, households who previously consumed better than average loosen their efforts compared to their peers with self-referencing goals. As such, our study contributes to Green IS research with novel insights on evaluative standards as design elements for smart meter user interfaces to shape actual resource consumption.
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01-Sustainability