Keeping up with the Joneses : examining community-level collaborative and competitive game mechanics to enhance houshold electricity-saving behaviour

Abstract

To test the effectiveness of competitive and collaborative settings on engaging households, a mobile app, called Social Power, was developed to provide electricity meter feedback in two gamified environments. The project aims at stimulating social engagement and promoting behavioural change to save electricity at the household level by forming Teams of neighbours in two Swiss cities. The household participants are assigned to one of two teams: either a collaborative team where citizens in the same city try to reach a fixed, collective 10% electricity savings target together, or a competitive team which tries to save the most electricity in comparison to the other city.