Reducing Carbon-Based Energy Consumption through Changes in Household Behavior

Dietz, Thomas; Stern, Paul C.; Weber, Elke U.

doi:10.1162/DAED_a_00186

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January 01 2013

Reducing Carbon-Based Energy Consumption through Changes in Household Behavior

Thomas Dietz,

Thomas Dietz

THOMAS DIETZ is Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, Sociology, and Animal Studies at Michigan State University, where he is also Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research. His publications include Human Footprints on the Global Environment: Threats to Sustainability (edited with Eugene A. Rosa, Andreas Diekmann, and Carlo C. Jaeger, 2010), Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (edited with Paul C. Stern, 2008), and New Tools for Environmental Protection: Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures (edited with Paul C. Stern, 2002).

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Paul C. Stern,

Paul C. Stern

PAUL C. STERN is a Senior Scholar with the Board on Environmental Change and Society at the National Research Council of the National Academies; he is also a Professor II at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His publications include Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (edited with Thomas Dietz, 2008), Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities (edited with Garry D. Brewer, 2005), and Environmental Problems and Human Behavior (with Gerald T. Gardner; 2nd ed., 2002).

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Elke U. Weber

ELKE U. WEBER is the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business at Columbia Business School and Professor of Psychology and Earth Institute Professor at Columbia University, where she is also Codirector of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions. Her work has recently appeared in the journals Nature Climate Change, Nature Neuroscience, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Psychological Science, and American Psychologist, among others. She coedited Conflict and Tradeoffs in Decision Making (with Jonathan Baron and Graham Loomes, 2001).

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Author and Article Information

Thomas Dietz

THOMAS DIETZ is Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, Sociology, and Animal Studies at Michigan State University, where he is also Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research. His publications include Human Footprints on the Global Environment: Threats to Sustainability (edited with Eugene A. Rosa, Andreas Diekmann, and Carlo C. Jaeger, 2010), Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (edited with Paul C. Stern, 2008), and New Tools for Environmental Protection: Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures (edited with Paul C. Stern, 2002).

Paul C. Stern

PAUL C. STERN is a Senior Scholar with the Board on Environmental Change and Society at the National Research Council of the National Academies; he is also a Professor II at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His publications include Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (edited with Thomas Dietz, 2008), Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities (edited with Garry D. Brewer, 2005), and Environmental Problems and Human Behavior (with Gerald T. Gardner; 2nd ed., 2002).

Elke U. Weber

ELKE U. WEBER is the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business at Columbia Business School and Professor of Psychology and Earth Institute Professor at Columbia University, where she is also Codirector of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions. Her work has recently appeared in the journals Nature Climate Change, Nature Neuroscience, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Psychological Science, and American Psychologist, among others. She coedited Conflict and Tradeoffs in Decision Making (with Jonathan Baron and Graham Loomes, 2001).

Online ISSN: 1548-6192

Print ISSN: 0011-5266

2013

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only. For a full description of the license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode.

Daedalus (2013) 142 (1): 78–89.

https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00186

Abstract

Actions by individuals and households to reduce carbon-based energy consumption have the potential to change the picture of U.S. energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the near term. To tap this potential, however, energy policies and programs need to replace outmoded assumptions about what drives human behavior; they must integrate insights from the behavioral and social sciences with those from engineering and economics. This integrated approach has thus far only occasionally been implemented. This essay summarizes knowledge from the social sciences and from highly successful energy programs to show what the potential is and how it can be achieved.

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2013

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only. For a full description of the license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode.

Reducing Carbon-Based Energy Consumption through Changes in Household Behavior

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