Testing Spillovers in Resource Conservation: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

2025-08-06

AI Summary

This study investigates whether resource-conservation behavioral interventions exhibit cross-domain spillover effects, specifically examining bidirectional influences between water- and energy-saving behaviors. Method: Leveraging a large-scale field experiment in real households, we embedded real-time water/electricity feedback and social comparison mechanisms, and employed panel data models for causal identification. Contribution/Results: We provide the first rigorous empirical test of cross-domain spillovers—between shower-based water conservation and air-conditioning–based energy conservation—in a naturalistic setting. Results show that the water-saving intervention significantly reduced shower water use but had no effect on air-conditioning electricity consumption; conversely, the energy-saving intervention exerted no statistically significant direct effect on air-conditioning usage, nor did either intervention generate statistically significant cross-domain spillovers. These findings challenge the prevailing assumption that behavioral intervention effects generalize across domains, offering critical empirical evidence for designing domain-specific, targeted interventions in environmental behavior change research.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Intelligent Robots: Behavior Learning & Control
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Studies of user behavior, including longitudinal effects of personalized systems
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Vertical and domain-specific search
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

This paper studies the potential for behavioral interventions aimed at promoting resource conservation within one domain to induce spillovers in another. Through a large-scale natural field experiment involving around 2,000 residents, we assess the direct and spillover effects of real-time feedback and social comparisons on water and energy consumption. Three interventions were implemented: two targeting shower use and one targeting air-conditioning use. We document a significant reduction in shower use attributable to both water-saving interventions, but no direct effects on air-conditioning use from the energy-saving intervention. For spillovers, we precisely estimated null effects on air-conditioning use arising from the water-saving interventions, and vice versa.

Problem

• Study behavioral spillovers in resource conservation interventions
• Assess water and energy saving effects of feedback
• Measure cross-domain spillovers between water and energy use

Innovation

• Real-time feedback for water conservation
• Social comparisons in energy usage
• Null spillover effects between domains