Commitment and Voluntary Energy Conservation

Homeowners were interviewed and expected to be either personally identified (public commitment) or not identified (private commitment) as having agreed to attempt energy conservation. The response measure of energy usage was provided by utility-meter readings for the month following the interview. Homeowners under public commitment showed a lower rate of increase in the use levels for both natural gas (Experiment I) and electricity (Experiment II) than under private commitment or in the control (no interview condition). Results from a set of self-monitoring conditions suggested that conservation may be related to increased attention to energy use levels.