Energy Usage and the Status Quo Bias

 

For this upper level psychology class Can and Jesse studied the application of the status quo bias to reduce energy consumption in dorms.  They designed an experiment that used different phrases on stickers above light switches that encouraged students to keep them in the off position.  In their ANOVA results, the student found, “a negative mean percent change in Littlefield Hall’s (the status quo condition’s) energy consumption, meaning a decrease in its average energy consumption; whereas both Caswell Hall (the non-status quo condition) and the Keeney Quad (the control condition) had positive mean percent changes, meaning an increase in their average energy consumptions.  Moreover, as predicted, non-status quo condition had a lower increase in its energy consumption than the control condition.”  While the results were not statistically significant they do suggest that applying status quo language can be and effective behavior change tool.  Can and Jess used the Building Dashboard to collect their data. 

Read Can and Jesse’s full report for more details.