{"id":13381,"date":"2017-10-16T06:24:38","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T06:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=13381"},"modified":"2017-10-16T06:24:38","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T06:24:38","slug":"healthy-competition-makes-habit-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/healthy-competition-makes-habit-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy competition makes habit of sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Biking to work is one of the energy-saving habits encouraged by the Cool Choices game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Living sustainably to save the planet is serious stuff, but Madison-based non-profit Cool Choices has made a game of it. And it seems to be working.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison researchers, the Cool Choices approach \u2014 a little friendly competition, some public accountability and a touch of peer pressure \u2014 may make energy-saving habits sink in to stay. An analysis with UW\u2013Madison psychology professor Markus Brauer shows lasting reductions in electricity use among hundreds of players, with the biggest gains among the players who started out as the heaviest energy users.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathy Kuntz, Cool Choices executive director, spent decades using what she described as traditional methods to get people to reduce their energy consumption: loading pamphlets and posters with statistics on lightbulbs and appliances and fossil fuels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were telling each other, \u2018This is important information. People will change, if they hear it. We just have to be louder,\u2019 \u201d Kuntz says. \u201cBut at some point, you realize you can\u2019t get any louder.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was time for a new approach, and Kuntz went looking for strategies that had worked in other arenas, such as public health campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kathy Kuntz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMany behavioral interventions are focused on how painful and difficult they are,\u201d says Brauer. \u201cBut can we make this fun? People like playing games \u2014 especially if there are teams, and team leaders and public leaderboards \u2014 and there\u2019s more and more evidence that approach makes a difference.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Emboldened by science communications research by the likes of UW\u2013Madison life sciences communication professor Dietram Scheufele and Brauer\u2019s work on influencing civil behavior, Cool Choices staff created a sustainability game to promote pro-environmental behaviors through workplace competitions. Since 2011, they\u2019ve had employees at law firms, car factories, school districts and construction companies forming teams and trying to out-perform their coworkers by earning points for each time they tried an energy-saving activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to an empirical study published this summer by Brauer, Kuntz, and others in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, the Cool Choices game leads to reliable and lasting reductions in energy consumption: the households of individuals who took part in the game saved on average 26 kilowatt-hours per month, compared to the other households in their area. If half of the American population made the same reduction, it would amount to nearly 50 billion kWh in savings \u2014 equivalent to switching off nine coal-fired power plants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost important about these results is that the reduced energy consumption was still there six months after the game ended,\u201d says Brauer. \u201cIt\u2019s unusual and exciting to show that an intervention makes significant changes that show up in actual meter readings from the utility company, and to see no indication that they are wearing off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cool Choices is successful, according to the study, because it made sustainability becomes more central to players\u2019 self-image and managed to turn energy-saving behaviors into habit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all are animals of routine. We do things the same way \u2014 the way we\u2019ve always done them \u2014 and we don\u2019t like change,\u201d Brauer says. \u201cBreaking these habits is one of the most difficult things to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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One of the sustainable habits encouraged by the Cool Choices game is installing a rain barrel. UW-MADISON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cool Choices players are presented daily with three or four new activities that save energy. Because the activities are specific and varied, players can choose the ones that are easiest to incorporate into their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the players \u2014 who record their energy-saving activities daily online, where they are translated into points on a scoreboard visible to all the players \u2014get extra points for repeating the good behaviors they\u2019ve tried.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRepetition makes habits,\u201d Brauer says. \u201cAnd once you\u2019ve got a habit, you start to see it as part of who you are. You\u2019ve started doing all these things, and the rewards aren\u2019t that big, so sustainability must be something you care about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The team structure of the game encourages people to interact, Kuntz says, in a way that might not be comfortable otherwise. Cool Choices becomes the handy reason to point out to a coworker that letting their car idle in the parking lot is a waste of gasoline<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can say, \u2018Hey, our team can get more points if you stop,\u2019 \u201d Kuntz says. \u201cYou have what Markus calls \u2018social license\u2019 to have that conversation, instead of being the crazy lady watching people in the parking lot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s license to apply a little social pressure, too \u2014 with a goal of winning small prizes or the right to choose the charity that receives a donation put up by the employer hosting Cool Choices, rather than being a busy-body \u2014 and to extend that pressure\u2019s reach into private spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big problems of sustainability is that so many of the impactful behaviors take place in people\u2019s homes, where they\u2019re not visible,\u201d says Brauer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cool Choices rewards players even more if they post photos of themselves making beneficial changes \u2014 unplugging that second fridge out in the garage, or installing a water-saving showerhead \u2014 in their homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe more those private behaviors are visible publicly, the greater the likelihood they also become part of your self-concept,\u201d Brauer says, \u201cand the more acceptable and reasonable they seem to other players.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brauer is interested to see if the Cool Choices model could work in other venues, like promoting inclusiveness and diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Making Cool Choices\u2019 successes more visible through partnering in the study with Brauer is an extra bonus for Kuntz.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we\u2019re lucky in is that we\u2019re here in Madison, where there are probably a dozen faculty who I have had long-term conversations with about their research and different conundrums,\u201d she says. \u201cBringing it full circle by contributing to that research makes it all the more rewarding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living sustainably to save the planet is serious stuff, but Madison-based non-profit Cool Choices has made a game of it. And it seems to be working. According to University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison researchers, the Cool Choices approach \u2014 a little friendly competition, some public accountability and a touch of peer pressure \u2014 may make energy-saving habits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,35,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","category-psychology","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",775,515,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515-768x510.jpg",750,498,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",750,498,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",775,515,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",775,515,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",775,515,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",775,515,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",600,399,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",600,399,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",737,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",542,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",640,425,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bike_to_work_week09_1781-775x515.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Other<\/a> Psychology<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}