http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl/62/4/363.pdf

Feedback as a means of decreasing residential energy consumption.

Behavioral approaches to residential energy conservation

A social psychological perspective on energy conservation in residential buildings.

We suggest that people's decisions to adopt energy-conserving processes and products is a specific instance of the decision to adopt an innovation. Drawing on previous research, we postulate a set of eight dimensions by means of which energy-conserving innovations are evaluated. We further argue that people's perceptions of an innovation's characteristics, on these dimensions, determine their decisions to adopt that innovation. Again in keeping with past research, we suggest that information that determines people's perceptions of innovations is more likely to be transmitted via social networks rather than mass media or other channels of communication. Taken together, these propositions form a theory of the adoption and diffusion of energy-conserving innovations. A research program is sketched that would provide support for the theory.

Diffusion of Energy-Conserving Innovations.

The burgeoning literature devoted to “the psychology of energy consumption” is categorized by specific methodological approach, is critically reviewed, and is conceptually analyzed. Three main categories of energy research are discerned, these categories corresponding to the traditional methodological typology of the survey study, the field experiment, and the laboratory investigation. For each of these major approaches, several subcategories and special topic areas are noted and discussed. The intention of these conceptual analyses is to stimulate research interest and to provide directions for future research activities. The review concludes with the encouraging observation that several directions can be generalized from the literature. More importantly, these generalizations are corroborated across experiments conducted within each major methodological approach. The importance of behavioral approaches to energy issues and the necessity for additional governmental support for these activities is also emphasized.

Energy consumption and conservation psychology: A review and conceptual analysis

Aggressive pursuit of energy conservation is a promising road to environmental protection, national economic well-being and reduced dependence on foreign sources; we can have energy abundance without energy growth

Energy efficiency: our most underrated energy resource

(1976). The Plutonium Economy. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Vol. 32, No. 10, pp. 10-14.

The Plutonium Economy

Energy and economic growth : a study prepared for the use of the Subcommittee on Energy of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States

Feeling that the US has lost control over its energy system, the authors explain in detail how to abolish what they consider to be the chaotic and inflationary energy system of the past decade. This work focuses on improving the efficiency of energy use by fostering myriad approaches to conserving fuel, instead of utilizing only a handful of energy-supply technologies. The authors prescribe specific, practical alternatives that will lead to more-effective methods and procedures - without causing severe and unsettling disruptions of our current life style. They contend that American enterprise is capable of creating, developing, and adopting an adequate research base and a suitable economic climate, which will inevitably bring about improved efficiency in our use of energy. They propose the renovation of present policies concerning taxation, economic regulation, and energy pricing, and they demonstrate that no additional central power stations are needed. Exploring all aspects of energy use, the study investigates such critical areas as the trends in material consumption (including saturation effects), the basic economics of improvements in energy use, the nation's present energy course, and the reasons for the rapid rises in energy costs. Coverage is devoted to such essential concerns as controlling the hazards ofmore » coal and nuclear power; the potential for solar energy; and fuel conservation in passenger transportation, industry, and the home.« less

Robert H. Williams

Papers

Energy efficiency: our most underrated energy resource

The Plutonium Economy

Energy and economic growth : a study prepared for the use of the Subcommittee on Energy of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States

Our energy, regaining control: A strategy for economic revival through redesign in energy use