Abstract
The analysis of energy efficiency rebound effects from a psychological perspective has just begun, and empirical studies analysing psychological factors in relation to the rebound effect are still scarce. In this chapter, we first identify possible psychological drivers to explain rebound effects based on psychological action theories. The outlined psychological framework suggests that energy efficiency improvements have different effects on behaviour depending on the interaction of psychological factors such as attitudes, personal and social norms and response efficacy. In a second step, we present results from an empirical study using focus group discussions to explore rebound effects and psychological drivers in the transport and residential sectors. The results are in line with the outlined psychological framework and indicate that need satiation, habits and mistaken beliefs about the optimal usage of a technology also seem to play a role. Finally, research questions are outlined to help further develop and test hypotheses on the psychological factors influencing rebound effects.
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Notes
- 1.
Alternatively, the saved money is spent on other goods and services which are likely to be energy-consuming as well, e.g. more extensive plane travel (indirect rebound effect).
- 2.
This construct relating to the awareness that one’s own behaviour has an effect and, hence, can make a difference has appeared in the literature under different labels, e.g. as efficacy (e.g. Kerr 1992), response efficacy (e.g. Lam and Chen 2006), or perceived (consumer) effectiveness (e.g. Thøgersen and Ölander 2006). However, it has to be distinguished from concepts which relate to judgements of how well one can execute the behaviour in question (e.g. Ajzen’s (1991) concept of perceived behavioural control; Bandura’s (1977) concept of perceived self efficacy).
- 3.
In contrast to the NAM and the model of Bamberg and Möser (2007), our model does not explicitly include the internal attribution of responsibility for the consequences of one’s action or inaction, as this should be closely related to response efficacy, i.e. the awareness that one’s own specific behaviour has an effect with regard to the problem.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for funding this research as part of the REBOUND project under project number 01UV1002C and 01UV1002B. We are grateful to Marco Sonnberger and Jürgen Deuschle, who conducted the focus group study together with Anja Peters. For their valuable comments on earlier versions of the manuscript we are grateful to Dr. Marco Sonnberger, Jürgen Deuschle, Prof. Joachim Schleich, Dr. Martin Soland, Dr. Birgit Mack, Hans Marth and three anonymous reviewers.
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Peters, A., Dütschke, E. (2016). Exploring Rebound Effects from a Psychological Perspective. In: Santarius, T., Walnum, H., Aall, C. (eds) Rethinking Climate and Energy Policies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38807-6_6
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