Using social injunctive norms to nudge users to build green houses / El empleo de normas prescriptivas sociales para animar a los usuarios a construir casas ecológicas

Abstract

We propose a study that aims to evaluate the impact of social injunctive normative messages on users of a building renovation application. We used software that allowed participants to design renovation projects from an existing building and test different configurations. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of injunctive social norms in order to incentivize energy-efficient renovation. We compared three groups varying in the presence or absence of the normative message and its salience. Results showed that compared to the control group, the salient injunctive norm group designs significantly more energy efficient buildings. We also found a marginally significant difference between non-salient injunctive norm and salient injunctive norm groups. Results have several implications for both social norm researchers and designers of similar applications.