Enhancing individual commitment to energy conservation in organizational settings: Identity manipulation for behavioral changes

Energy consumption in organizational settings has long been neglected. Relevant evidence shows that this part of consumption is quantitively large and not quite efficient, which makes it an ideal source to pursue mitigation. This paper tries an innovative behavioral intervention strategy, i.e. identity manipulation, for curbing energy use in organizational settings. First, the links between pro-environmental identity (PEI) and energy conservation behaviors are tested under an expanded TPB (theory of planned behavior) model, with survey data collected with living-on-campus students and office occupants. The results show that PEI is an independent cause for adopting energy conservation practices, and this link is statistically significant and firm across several organizational contexts. Based on the confirmed identity-behavior link, we design an identity-based intervention, say linking the undesired excessive energy use behavior to a dissociative group, and we find the intervention may exert moderate influence on behaviors involving substantial energy consumption, but may not quite change behavioral habits involving only minor energy consumption. Further, we do not find evidence that the effect of identity-contamination intervention spills over to private domains.