TY - JOUR
T1 - Nudging and citizen science
T2 - The effectiveness of feedback in energy-demand management
AU - Cappa, Francesco
AU - Rosso, Federica
AU - Giustiniano, Luca
AU - Porfiri, Maurizio
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - Nudging is a framework for directing individuals toward better behavior, both for personal and societal benefits, through heuristics that drive the decision-making process but without preventing any available choice. Considering the Grand Challenges that our society faces today, nudging represents an effective framework to tackle some of these pressing issues. In this work, we assessed the effectiveness of informational nudges in the form of detailed, customized feedback, within an energy-demand-management project. The project aligns energy production and demand, thereby reducing greenhouse gases and pollutant emissions to mitigate climate change. We also offered evidence that this kind of feedback is efficacious in involving individuals as citizen scientists, who volunteer their efforts toward the success of the environmentally-related aim of the project. The results of this research – based on surveys, electroencephalography measurements and online participation measures – indicate that feedback can be an effective tool to steer participants’ behavior under the libertarian paternalistic view of nudging, increase their motivation to contribute to citizen science, and improve their awareness about environmentally-related issues. In so doing, we provide evidence that nudging and citizen science can be jointly adopted toward the mitigation of pressing environmental issues.
AB - Nudging is a framework for directing individuals toward better behavior, both for personal and societal benefits, through heuristics that drive the decision-making process but without preventing any available choice. Considering the Grand Challenges that our society faces today, nudging represents an effective framework to tackle some of these pressing issues. In this work, we assessed the effectiveness of informational nudges in the form of detailed, customized feedback, within an energy-demand-management project. The project aligns energy production and demand, thereby reducing greenhouse gases and pollutant emissions to mitigate climate change. We also offered evidence that this kind of feedback is efficacious in involving individuals as citizen scientists, who volunteer their efforts toward the success of the environmentally-related aim of the project. The results of this research – based on surveys, electroencephalography measurements and online participation measures – indicate that feedback can be an effective tool to steer participants’ behavior under the libertarian paternalistic view of nudging, increase their motivation to contribute to citizen science, and improve their awareness about environmentally-related issues. In so doing, we provide evidence that nudging and citizen science can be jointly adopted toward the mitigation of pressing environmental issues.
KW - Citizen science
KW - Crowd
KW - Electroencephalography
KW - Energy-demand management
KW - Grand challenges
KW - Nudging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084439920&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85084439920&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110759
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110759
M3 - Article
C2 - 32425166
AN - SCOPUS:85084439920
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 269
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 110759
ER -