How Psychological Incentives Motivate People to Save Electricity

Simple psychological incentives are often enough to encourage people to change their behavior—and this is also true when it comes to saving electricity. A new study by Mannheim-based consumer psychologist Dr. Yavor Paunov and colleagues shows that both comparing one’s own electricity consumption with that of others and practical energy-saving tips can help reduce energy consumption.

As part of the 24-week field experiment, the research team studied 140 student households in Stockholm. In doing so, it compared two psychological approaches: “nudging” and “boosting.” Participants in the “nudge” group received weekly feedback on how their electricity consumption compared to that of other households. The “boost” group received appliance-specific energy-saving tips. The result: Both measures curbed the seasonal increase in electricity consumption during the winter months. Combined, this saved seven megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity. By way of comparison: A single-person household in Germany consumes an average of about 1.2 MWh of electricity per year.

“We had assumed that participants in the Boost group would consume less electricity during the study period than participants in the Nudge group,” explains study author Dr. Yavor Paunov. “Instead, both measures significantly reduced electricity consumption compared to the control group. The effects of the two approaches did not differ statistically significantly from one another.”

A distinctive feature of the study is that the authors tracked actual electricity consumption over a comparatively long period of time. To date, there have been only a few studies that directly compare different energy-saving strategies with one another. For example, earlier studies used simulated online scenarios, examined self-selected groups, or covered shorter time periods.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports, which is part of the Springer Nature publishing group. Lead author Paunov collected the data while working at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and wrote the paper at the University of Mannheim.

The analyses also show that the greatest savings were achieved among individuals with high electricity consumption at the start of the study. In this group, the “Boost” intervention was associated with a reduction of 3.97 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per week compared to the control group. Among participants in the “Nudge” group, the corresponding reduction was 3.12 kWh per week. The results suggest that households with high energy consumption, in particular, can benefit from specific, immediately actionable energy-saving tips.

Limitations of the Study
The authors also point out several limitations. Since the study focused exclusively on student dormitories, the results cannot be readily generalized to other population groups and living situations. Additionally, the dormitories were located in close proximity to one another. It is possible that participants discussed the measures with one another, which may have resulted in smaller differences between the intervention groups.

Paunov, Y., Grüne-Yanoff, T., Marchionni, C. et al. A randomized field experiment comparing nudges and boosts for household electricity conservation in student housing. Scientific Reports 16, 27689 (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-69386-6

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