How behavioral science can lower your energy bill
1,281,218 views | Alex Laskey • TED2013
What's a proven way to lower your energy costs? Would you believe: learning what your neighbor pays. Alex Laskey shows how a quirk of human behavior can make us all better, wiser energy users, with lower bills to prove it.
What's a proven way to lower your energy costs? Would you believe: learning what your neighbor pays. Alex Laskey shows how a quirk of human behavior can make us all better, wiser energy users, with lower bills to prove it.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
About the speaker
Alex Laskey helps power companies to help their customers cut down -- using data analysis, marketing and a pinch of psychology.
Robert Cialdini | Harper Business, 2006 | Book
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Leading behavioral scientist Robert Cialdini gives an eye-opening tour of the psychological mechanisms at the heart of persuasion, including the powerful notion of social pressure I describe in the talk.
Dan Ariely | Harper Perennial, 2010 | Book
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions
Behavioral economist, best-selling author and popular TED speaker Dan Ariely examines the hidden forces that shape people’s decisions and actions, such as how social norms can often be more powerful than market incentives.
Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein | Penguin, 2009 | Book
Nudge
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein draw upon decades of behavioral research to reveal how better information can nudge people toward better choices, ranging from energy usage to health to finances.
Daniel Kahneman | Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013 | Book
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, who gave the TED Talk 'The riddle of experience vs. memory,' explores how behavioral economics and cognitive biases influence our everyday decision making.
Hunt Allcott | Journal of Public Economics, October 2011 | Article
Social norms and energy conservation
Renowned economist Hunt Alcott’s evaluation of Opower’s behavioral energy efficiency programs at 17 different utilities across the United States.
Robert Cialdini and Wesley Shultz | William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2004 | Article
Understanding and motivating energy conservation via social norms
The original 'doorhanger' experiment I describe in the talk, explaining how households in San Marcos California responded to a range of behavioral messaging about energy conservation.
Saugato Datta and Sendhil Mullainathan | Center for Global Develoment, November 2012 | Article
Behavioral Design: A New Approach to Development Policy
This is an accessible explanation of how to apply behavioral science concepts in designing programs and policies.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.