Complementarities in behavioral interventions: Evidence from a field experiment on resource conservation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fang, Ximeng; Goette, Lorenz; Rockenbach, Bettina; Sutter, Matthias; Tiefenbeck, Verena; Schoeb, Samuel; Staake, Thorsten
• 署名单位: University of Oxford; National University of Singapore; University of Cologne; Max Planck Society; University of Innsbruck; University of Erlangen Nuremberg; Otto Friedrich University Bamberg; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.105028
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: Behavioral public policy; Pro-environmental behavior; limited attention; Information provision; Real-time feedback; Policy interactions

摘要

Behavioral policy often aims at influencing behavior by mitigating biases due to, e.g., imperfect information or inattention. We study how this is affected by the simultaneous presence of multiple biases arising from different sources, through a field experiment on resource conservation in an energy-and water-intensive everyday activity (showering). One intervention, shower energy reports, primarily targeted knowledge about environmental impacts; another intervention, real-time feedback, primarily targeted salience of resource use. We find a striking complementarity. While only the latter induced significant conservation effects when implemented in isolation, each intervention became more effective when implemented jointly. This is consistent with predictions from a theoretical framework that highlights the importance of targeting all relevant sources of bias to achieve behavioral change.