Henrik Siepelmeyer

• Mäkivierikko, Aram; Siepelmeyer, Henrik; Shahrokni, Hossein; Enarsson, David & Kordas, Olga (2023). Reducing electricity peak loads through ‘pause hours’ - a community-based behavioural demand response approach. Journal of Cleaner Production. ISSN 0959-6526. 408. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137064. Show summary

  Households can provide demand-side flexibility by changing their consumption behaviour and shifting energy-intensive activities – such as vacuuming, cooking or charging electric cars – to off-peak hours. Such behaviour-based demand response management could balance out consumption peaks without the need for costly smart home devices or automation technologies. However, existing research has struggled to motivate consumers to adapt their behaviour or maintain behaviour change over extended periods of time. This field study explored a scalable and cost-effective behavioural demand response tool and investigated its short- and long-term impacts on average and peak hour electricity consumption under realistic conditions: A smartphone app provided users with social comparison feedback on their electricity consumption and invited them to participate in “pause hours” by avoiding energy-intensive activities during peak hours. To appeal even to hard-to-reach energy users and elicit longer-term engagement, the app also contained a neighbourhood newsfeed and was framed as a local social network. In a 15-month trial with 550 student apartments in Sweden, more than half of the residents voluntarily installed the app, many app users stayed engaged over an extended period of time and pause hour participants achieved substantial peak-load consumption reductions of 46% on average. These results indicate that smartphone apps can achieve peak load consumption reduction and long-term engagement, although they may be particularly attractive to already energy efficient households. Avenues for future research are discussed.

• Siepelmeyer, Henrik & Otterbring, Anders Emil Tobias (2022). Citizen Coherence and Cultivated Cleanliness: Using Technology-Induced Social Norms to Strengthen Sustainable Household Bonds. Frontiers in Sustainability. 3. doi: 10.3389/frsus.2022.899938. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Social identity and social capital are critical to human well-being and sustainable development. However, existing research on sustainable behavior typically treats these factors merely as taken-for-granted preconditions to environmental protection. This paper argues that they can also be direct outcomes of environment-oriented efforts, thus becoming drivers of sustainable societies. As part of a larger research project on household recycling and waste behavior, the authors assess and compare perceived social identity and social capital of residents in a multi-family residential dwelling in Sweden before (N = 66) and after (N = 18) exposure to a social norm-based intervention delivered through a smartphone app. Reported levels of social identity and social capital were higher after (vs. before) the intervention, both compared to participants' own previous measurement and a control group. Together, the current research offers a novel perspective on technology-enabled social norms. Specifically, such norms may not only create sustainable responses immediately, but may also play a pivotal role in shaping more sustainable communities in the long run. Future studies are needed to elucidate the specific psychological mechanisms driving the observed effects and shed further light on whether, when, and why social norms may foster sustainable responses with a clear social connotation.

• Kowal, Marta; Sorokowski, Piotr; Pisanski, Katarzyna; Valentova, Jaroslava Varella; Varella, Marco A. C. & Frederick, David A. [Show all 78 contributors for this article] (2022). Predictors of enhancing human physical attractiveness: Data from 93 countries. Evolution and human behavior. ISSN 1090-5138. 43(6), p. 455–474. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.08.003. Full text in Research Archive

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