A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Carbon-Neutral Energy Purchasing

In the described experiments, we probe the ability of a novel operant demand decision making task to detect differences in community-scale “green” consumerism following introduction of choice architectural environmental manipulations. In both experiments, participants are asked to make decisions regarding their enrollment in an environmentally friendly home-energy supply at prices unique to their household experience. In Experiment 1, we assess task baseline performance by examining consistency within generated demand metrics, relation of metrics to existing measures of ecological concern, and metric predictive ability as it pertains to eco-friendly action. Results suggest adequate internal performance and conceptual divergence from existing measures. In Experiment 2, we test the performance of the task as a framework for evaluating scalable choice architectural intervention. In this case, participants indicate their willingness to enroll or remain enrolled, pending an opt-in or opt-out arrangement. Results suggest task sensitivity sufficient to detect group differences in demand: Our opt-out arrangements (i.e., default enrollment) produced significantly greater clean energy purchasing. Overall findings infer viability of our novel task for use as an evaluative instrument in prospective community intervention.