Are Normative Appeals Moral Taxes? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Water Conservation

Daniel Brent, Corey Lott, Michael Taylor, Joseph Cook, Kimberly Rollins and Shawn Stoddard

Departmental Working Papers from Department of Economics, Louisiana State University

Abstract: We investigate how normative appeals for water conservation drive behavioral change using a large-scale field experiment. Using a new social comparison that reduces the correlation between pre-treatment consumption and the difference from the peer group, we isolate the normative component of the message. The strength of the message, which we define as a household's performance relative to a peer group, is a primary driver of social comparisons' efficacy, consistent with social compar- isons imposing a moral cost on excess consumption. Relative to a nudge highlighting financial savings, social comparisons generate less persistent water savings and are more dependent on multiple mailers.

Date: 2017-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2017-07

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