Engaging energy saving through motivation-specific social comparison

Abstract

Comparison is widely used in research projects and commercial products whose goal is to motivate energy saving at home. This research builds on fundamental theories from social psychology in an attempt to shed light on how to motivate consumers to conserve energy by providing relevant people for social comparison depending on consumer's motivation to compare. To support the research process, the mobile application EnergyWiz was developed through a theory-driven design approach. Along with other features EnergyWiz provides users with three types of social comparison - normative, one-on-one and ranking. The results of interviews with prospective users are used to derive design suggestions for relevant people for comparison (comparison subjects).