Group psychology may be one of the industry's most powerful tools to achieve efficiency gains among residential customers. According to a 2004 experiment conducted by Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist at Arizona State University, normative behavior-based on perceptions about how one's neighbors behave or how one thinks they behave-can be an effective tool for changing energy con-rnsumption behavior.rnParticipating in the study were 1,207 households in San Marcos, a middle-class residential city north of San Diego. One batch of doorhang-ers used normative messages such as "most people in your community are finding ways to conserve energy at home" or "researchers have found that X percent of San Marcos residents often use fans instead of air conditioning." Other doorhang-ers were left with environmental, self-interest, or social responsibility messages.
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