Environment
People Save More Energy When They Know They're Being Watched
People who received postcards saying their energy use was being tracked reduced their consumption by 2.7 percent.
How do you prevent someone from wasting electricity? The same way you prevent them from picking their nose — make them think they are being watched.
Carnegie Mellon University researchers wanted to see whether the Hawthorne effect could be used to change energy-use patterns. The Hawthorne effect refers to the way people tend to alter their behavior when they sense they are being observed. The effect can be a pain in the ass for scientists trying to study human behavior, but it can also be a powerful tool for influencing that behavior.