Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Aug 2026, 01:45:24am WEST
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Daily Overview |
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Climate Change Mitigation 3: Social Norms Location: B011 Session Chair: Rafael Nunes, Economic and Social Research Institute | |
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From Conformity to Distinction: How Reframing Social Comparison Improves Sustainable Consumer Choice 1: Economic Social Research Institute, Ireland; 2: Trinity College Dublin; 3: Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change; 4: Ca' Foscari University of Venice Behavioural interventions increasingly complement energy labels, but social comparison may backfire when the targeted behaviour is uncommon. We study how framing social comparison affects energy-efficient appliance choice in an online experiment with 1,828 Irish consumers. Participants completed a retail-style shopping task and a discrete choice experiment under Control, a descriptive norm (“Direct Comparison”), or a reframed message (“Positive Deviance”). We leverage baseline heterogeneity across categories: washing machines exhibit high prevalence of efficient choices, whereas fridge-freezers do not. Direct Comparison increases efficiency when efficient choices are already common, but in low-prevalence markets it polarises decisions across energy labels, increasing selection of both the least and the most efficient products. Positive Deviance produces consistent upward shifts in energy efficiency and increases willingness to pay for the highest-rated labels without increasing inefficient choices. A conservative national calibration implies that reframing comparison can yield meaningful electricity savings where standard norms may fail. | |