Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Article
  • Nature Human Behaviour

The Critical Role of Second-order Normative Beliefs in Predicting Energy Conservation

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Oliver P. Hauser, Julia D. O'Brien, Erin Sherman and Adam D. Galinsky
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Sustaining large-scale public goods requires individuals to make environmentally friendly decisions today to benefit future generations. Recent research suggests that second-order normative beliefs are more powerful predictors of behaviour than first-order personal beliefs. We explored the role that second-order normative beliefs—the belief that community members think that saving energy helps the environment—play in curbing energy use. We first analysed a data set of 211 independent, randomized controlled trials conducted in 27 US states by Opower, a company that uses comparative information about energy consumption to reduce household energy usage (pooled N = 16,198,595). Building off the finding that the energy savings varied between 0.81% and 2.55% across states, we matched this energy use data with a survey that we conducted of over 2,000 individuals in those same states on their first-order personal and second-order normative beliefs. We found that second-order normative beliefs predicted energy savings but first-order personal beliefs did not. A subsequent pre-registered experiment provides causal evidence for the role of second-order normative beliefs in predicting energy conservation above first-order personal beliefs. Our results suggest that second-order normative beliefs play a critical role in promoting energy conservation and have important implications for policymakers concerned with curbing the detrimental consequences of climate change.

Keywords

Climate Change; Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Household; Behavior; Values and Beliefs; Forecasting and Prediction

Citation

Jachimowicz, Jon M., Oliver P. Hauser, Julia D. O'Brien, Erin Sherman, and Adam D. Galinsky. "The Critical Role of Second-order Normative Beliefs in Predicting Energy Conservation." Nature Human Behaviour 2, no. 10 (October 2018): 757–764.
  • Register to Read

About The Author

Jon M. Jachimowicz

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2025
    • Administrative Science Quarterly

    Riding the Passion Wave or Fighting to Stay Afloat? A Theory of Differentiated Passion Contagion

    By: Emma Frank, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu and Jon M. Jachimowicz
    • April 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Giving Up on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra

    By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Alexis Lefort
    • January 24, 2025
    • Science

    Behaviorally Designed Training Leads to More Diverse Hiring

    By: Cansin Arslan, Edward H. Chang, Siri Chilazi, Iris Bohnet and Oliver P. Hauser
More from the Authors
  • Riding the Passion Wave or Fighting to Stay Afloat? A Theory of Differentiated Passion Contagion By: Emma Frank, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu and Jon M. Jachimowicz
  • Giving Up on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Alexis Lefort
  • Behaviorally Designed Training Leads to More Diverse Hiring By: Cansin Arslan, Edward H. Chang, Siri Chilazi, Iris Bohnet and Oliver P. Hauser
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.