100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition

56 People are Motivated by Social Norms

Jessica Nolan (2008) wanted to know if it is possible to change behavior just by giving people information, and if it is, what type of information is most likely to result in behavior change.

Nolan created five messages about using less electricity:

1. Using less electricity protects the environment.

2. Using less electricity makes you more socially responsible.

3. Using less electricity saves you money.

4. Your neighbors used less electricity.

5. Here’s the amount of electricity you used.

The only group that ended up using less electricity was the one that heard message 4. When people were given information (by the way, this was actual data) that showed how their own electrical usage compared to the other homes in ...