Cognitive Science Program

Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings (2010)
Shahzeen Z Attari, Michael L DeKay, Cliff I Davidson and Wändi Bruine De Bruin
Proceedings of the National Academy of sciences, 107 (37), 16054-16059

Abstract

In a national online survey, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation, and recycling activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contrast to experts’ recommendations. For a sample of 15 activities, participants underestimated energy use and savings by a factor of 2.8 on average, with small overestimates for low-energy activities and large underestimates for high-energy activities. Additional estimation and ranking tasks also yielded relatively flat functions for perceived energy use and savings. Across several tasks, participants with higher numeracy scores and stronger proenvironmental attitudes had more accurate …

Perceptions of water use (2014)
Shahzeen Z Attari
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111 (14), 5129-5134

Abstract

In a national online survey, 1,020 participants reported their perceptions of water use for household activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve water in their lives, or what other Americans could do, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., taking shorter showers, turning off the water while brushing teeth) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., replacing toilets, retrofitting washers). This contrasts with expert recommendations. Additionally, some participants are more likely to list curtailment actions for themselves, but list efficiency actions for other Americans. For a sample of 17 activities, participants underestimated water use by a factor of 2 on average, with large underestimates for high water-use activities. An additional ranking task showed poor discrimination of low vs. high embodied water content in food products. High numeracy scores, older age, and male sex …

Preferences for change: Do individuals prefer voluntary actions, soft regulations, or hard regulations to decrease fossil fuel consumption? (2009)
Shahzeen Z Attari, Mary Schoen, Cliff I Davidson, Michael L DeKay, Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Robyn Dawes ...
Ecological Economics, 68 (6), 1701-1710

Abstract

Pittsburgh residents (n = 209) reported their preferences for voluntary actions, soft regulations, and hard regulations to (a) limit the number of SUVs and trucks and (b) increase green energy use for household energy consumption. These two goals were presented in one of two motivating frames, as addressing either environmental or national security issues. For the goal of limiting SUVs and trucks, results indicated that participants favored voluntary actions over hard regulations, and soft regulations over voluntary actions. For the goal of increasing green energy, results indicated that participants preferred both voluntary actions and soft regulations over hard regulations, but had no significant preference between voluntary actions and soft regulations. How the problems were framed did not significantly affect participants' willingness to accept voluntary actions or regulations. Participants' environmental attitudes (as …

Paying for What Was Free: Lessons from the New York Times Paywall (2012)
Jonathan E Cook and Shahzeen Z Attari
Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 15 (12), 682-687

Abstract

In a national online longitudinal survey, participants reported their attitudes and behaviors in response to the recently implemented metered paywall by the New York Times. Previously free online content now requires a digital subscription to access beyond a small free monthly allotment. Participants were surveyed shortly after the paywall was announced and again 11 weeks after it was implemented to understand how they would react and adapt to this change. Most readers planned not to pay and ultimately did not. Instead, they devalued the newspaper, visited its Web site less frequently, and used loopholes, particularly those who thought the paywall would lead to inequality. Results of an experimental justification manipulation revealed that framing the paywall in terms of financial necessity moderately increased support and willingness to pay. Framing the paywall in terms of a profit motive proved to be a …

The water short list: The most effective actions US households can take to curb water use (2014)
Benjamin D Inskeep and Shahzeen Z Attari
Environment: Science and policy for sustainable development, 56 (4), 4-15

Abstract

The long-term sustainability of many urban water supply systems in the United States is under assault from a confluence of forces. Climate change, an aging and increasingly obsolete water infrastructure, an expanding population in water-scarce regions, and economic growth are several of the formidable challenges to meeting present and future freshwater demands. 1 Water conservation (broadly defined as reducing water use) offers a cost-effective and environmentally benign way to address these challenges in comparison to capturing, transporting, and treating new supplies. 2 American households, a key end user of publicly supplied water, can play a vital role by curbing their own water use through installing water-efficient appliances (eg, clothes washing machines) and fixtures (eg, faucets) and adopting conserving habits. Determining the extent to which overall water use can be curbed can demonstrate the …

Changing household behaviors to curb climate change: how hard can it be? (2011)
Shahzeen Z Attari, Michael L DeKay, Cliff I Davidson and Wändi Bruine de Bruin
Sustainability: The Journal of Record, 4 (1), 11-Sep

Abstract

Figure 1. Actual household energy savings versus the perceived ease or difficulty of implementing 15 actions from Gardner and Stern’s short list. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals for mean perceptions. Symbols in black represent mean scores from 2–3; those in grey represent mean scores from 3–4.

Statements about climate researchers’ carbon footprints affect their credibility and the impact of their advice (2016)
Shahzeen Z Attari, David H Krantz and Elke U Weber
Climatic Change, 138 (2-Jan), 325-338

Abstract

Would you follow advice about personal energy conservation from a climate specialist with a large carbon footprint? Many climate researchers report anecdotes in which their sincerity was challenged based on their alleged failure to reduce carbon emissions. Here, we report the results of two large online surveys that measure the perceived credibility of a climate researcher who provides advice on how to reduce energy use (by flying less, conserving home energy, and taking public transportation), as a function of that researcher’s personal carbon footprint description. Across the two studies, we randomly assigned participants to one of 18 vignettes about a climate scientist. We show that alleged large carbon footprints can greatly reduce the researcher’s credibility compared to low footprints. We also show that these differences in perceived credibility strongly affect participants’ reported intentions to change …

Reasons for cooperation and defection in real-world social dilemmas (2014)
Shahzeen Z Attari, David H Krantz and Elke U Weber
Judgment & Decision Making, 9 (4), 316-334

Abstract

Interventions to increase cooperation in social dilemmas depend on understanding decision makers’ motivations for cooperation or defection. We examined these in five real-world social dilemmas: situations where private interests are at odds with collective ones. An online survey (N= 929) asked respondents whether or not they cooperated in each social dilemma and then elicited both open-ended reports of reasons for their choices and endorsements of a provided list of reasons. The dilemmas chosen were ones that permit individual action rather than voting or advocacy:(1) conserving energy,(2) donating blood,(3) getting a flu vaccination,(4) donating to National Public Radio (NPR), and (5) buying green electricity. Self-reported cooperation is weakly but positively correlated across these dilemmas. Cooperation in each dilemma correlates fairly strongly with self-reported altruism and with punitive attitudes toward defectors. Some strong domain-specific behaviors and beliefs also correlate with cooperation. The strongest example is frequency of listening to NPR, which predicts donation. Socio-demographic variables relate only weakly to cooperation. Respondents who selfreport cooperation usually cite social reasons (including reciprocity) for their choice. Defectors often give self-interest reasons but there are also some domain-specific reasons—some report that they are not eligible to donate blood; some cannot buy green electricity because they do not pay their own electric bills. Cooperators generally report that several of the provided reasons match their actual reasons fairly well, but most defectors endorse none or at most one of the …

Does information feedback from in-home devices reduce electricity use? Evidence from a field experiment (2014)
Shahzeen Z Attari, Gautam Gowrisankaran, Troy Simpson and Sabine M Marx
National Bureau of Economic Research. (w20809),

Abstract

There is limited evidence of behavioral changes resulting from electricity information feedback. Using a randomized control trial from a New York apartment building, we study long-term effects of information feedback from “Modlet” in-home devices, which provide near-real-time plug-level information. We find a 12–23% decrease in electricity use for treatment apartments, concentrated among individuals reporting higher willingness-to-pay for an energy monitoring system. Decrease in overall electricity use is similar among treatment apartments which received Modlets and those which declined Modlets, and does not specifically occur for outlets with Modlets. This decrease may be due to a Hawthorne or salience effect.

On the Importance of Strengthening Moderate Beliefs in Climate Science to Foster Support for Immediate Action (2013)
Z.A. Wendling, S.Z. Attari, S.R. Carley, R.M. Krause, D.C. Warren, J.A. Rupp ...
Sustainability, 5 (12), 5153-5170

Abstract

Whereas many studies focus on climate skeptics to explain the lack of support for immediate action on climate change, this research examines the effect of moderate believers in climate science. Using data from a representative survey of 832 Indiana residents, we find that agreement with basic scientific conclusions about climate change is the strongest predictor of support for immediate action, and the strength of that agreement is an important characteristic of this association. Responses indicate widespread acceptance of climate change, moderate levels of risk perception, and limited support for immediate action. Half of the respondents (50%) preferred “more research” over “immediate action”(38%) and “no action”(12%) as a response to climate change. The probability of preferring immediate action is close to zero for those who strongly or somewhat disbelieve in climate change, but as belief in climate change grows from moderate to strong, the probability of preferring immediate action increases substantially; the strongest believers have a predicted probability of preferring immediate action of 71%. These findings suggest that, instead of simply engaging skeptics, increasing public support for immediate action might entail motivating those with moderate beliefs in climate change to hold their views with greater conviction. View Full-Text

Public preferences for species conservation: choosing between lethal control, habitat protection and no action (2016)
Michelle L Lute and Shahzeen Z Attari
Environmental Conservation, 9-Jan

Abstract

Despite increasing support for conservation efforts, humans exert strong negative forces on nature and disagree over the management of these effects. Conflicts over conservation policy may reflect evolving opinions about how people ought to conserve species and whether to intervene in various processes. To understand public preferences for conservation in the USA, we measured support for various strategies in five case studies, where we pitted one species against another in simplified but realistic scenarios. Among our online convenience sample of 1040 participants, we found the majority of participants favoured habitat protection in all but one case, and there was little acceptance of lethal control across all cases. The results reveal that habitat protection preferences positively relate to considerations of moral principles and ecosystems and negatively relate to economic and practical …

Don’t rush to flush (2015)
Michelle L Lute, Shahzeen Z Attari and Steven J Sherman
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 43 105-111

Abstract

Encouraging sustainable water use is a critical endeavor in addressing issues associated with short- and long-term droughts. Toilets account for up to 26.7% of indoor household water use. Therefore substantial opportunity exists to conserve water via reduced flushing after urination at home. Here, we use an online survey (N = 1008) to identify barriers to reduced flushing. The majority of participants reported they always flush (63%) and believed that others should always flush. Social norms surrounding cleanliness are the most prevalent reasons for flushing. Results suggest four main barriers to reducing flushing: disgust sensitivity, habitual nature of flushing, norms regarding cleanliness, and lack of pro-environmental motivations. Participants who always flush are less likely to sacrifice for the environment than occasional flushers. Participants tended to underestimate average American water use and their own …

Enabling energy conservation through effective decision aids (2015)
Shahzeen Z Attari and Deepak Rajagopal
Journal of Sustainability Education, 8

Abstract

Why don't people adopt energy efficient appliances and curtail their behaviors to decrease energy use? People may not know which behaviors are truly effective and may be insufficiently motivated to change their behaviors. We focus on one area of this problem by first analyzing existing decision aids, tools available to help users make effective decisions. We explore EPA’s Energy Star program, DoE’s EERE calculators, and LBNL’s Home Energy Saver tool. We highlight their strengths and limitations and propose a framework to expand the functionality and uptake of the information through such aids. We suggest improvements along two broad areas. One area concerns the analytic capabilities and the information content of the decision aid, which focuses on (1) multiple goals and constraints,(2) hidden costs, and (3) heterogeneity in user characteristics. The other pertains to the framing so that users can easily process information through decision architecture by limiting choice overload and incorporating smart default options.

Reply to Frederick et al.: Anchoring effects on energy perceptions (2011)
Shahzeen Z Attari, Michael L DeKay, Cliff I Davidson and Wändi Bruine De Bruin
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (8), E24-E24

Abstract

It is well known that numerical judgments are subject to anchoring effects, with initial values having substantial influence on final answers (3). In our article, we noted that the compressed range of respondents’ energy estimates “almost certainly resulted from an anchoring bias in which the reference point provided in the task served as an anchor for participants’ estimates, causing those estimates to be too similar to the reference point”(p 16057). This compression, combined with a relatively low reference point (a 100-W light bulb used for 1 h), contributed to the underestimation of energy use. We also predicted that “it would be possible to eliminate this underestimation (or even generate overestimation) by using a higher reference point”(SI Text, p 2). The follow-up study replicates our results for the light-bulb reference point and confirms the expected effects of other reference points on means and ranges, thereby …

Maize seed choice and perceptions of climate variability among smallholder farmers (2017)
Kurt B Waldman, Jordan P Blekking, Shahzeen Z Attari and Tom P Evans
Global environmental change, 47 51-63

Abstract

Despite decades of research and interventions, crop yields for smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa are dramatically lower than in developed countries. Attempts to address low yields of staple crops in Africa since the Green Revolution through policies and investments in advanced seed cultivars have had mixed results. Numerous countries have heartily embraced and promoted hybrid cultivars through government subsidy programs and investments in research and seed multiplication. One possible explanation for why these programs have not resulted in more significant yield improvements is the challenge faced by farmers to select cultivars that are suited to their local environmental conditions. The question of what seeds farmers choose is exceptionally complex as it is often affected by local seed availability, the availability of information on seed performance, and the transfer of that information to …