Social Influence and the Energy Transition: Leveraging social networks and norms

Abstract

How people influence each other with regards to adopting sustainable behaviors is a major scientific and societal question. This is particularly relevant within the context of the energy transition. While much research has focused on determining the effectiveness of specific social influence mechanisms, there remains a gap in understanding the underlying mechanisms that determine their success. Through a multifaceted approach including lab experiments, survey studies, and a field experiment, this thesis explores these issues. It finds that the effectiveness of a social influence mechanism for simple behaviors may not translate to complex ones, and the degree to which a behavior is gradual does not seem to influence its adoption rate among social networks. Furthermore, sharing social influence information within networks can lead to both desired and undesired behavior changes. In sum, this thesis reveals that social influence mechanisms are not universally applicable tools for achieving homogeneous adoption, but rather their effectiveness is contingent on contextual factors.