Abstract
Research on sustainability in the building sector currently focuses mainly on technical solutions while little attention is given to how behaviour influences the uptake of these solutions. Bounded rationality may have a significant impact on the effective implementation of more sustainable technologies that are already available. However, empirical evidence on the effects of bounded rationality in the building sector, such as cognitive biases, is still lacking. Here, we present an empirical investigation of four cognitive biases in the building environment, namely the framing, anchor, default, and decoy effect. For that, energy-related decisions situations were presented to approximately 270 participants in an online survey. Our results show that awareness of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings can be raised through framing that the willingness to pay more for an energy-efficient home can be increased by presenting it as default, and that the choices can be shifted towards more energy-efficient appliances by using a decoy. The hypothesis that anchoring increases the willingness to pay more for the installation of a solar system could not be supported. These findings decrease the lack of empirical data on cognitive biases in the context of buildings and further indicate the potential of choice architecture in the building environment. The influence of cognitive biases in energy-related decisions should be used to increase the adaptation of sustainable technologies.
Highlights
Buildings account for about 40% of global energy consumption and for roughly 39%of global material resource use [1]
The effect was significant for the fridge, χ2 = 5.981, p = 0.007, and the vacuum cleaner (VC) example, χ2 = 3.686, p = 0.027, with small effect sizes for the fridge, 15.21%, h = 0.314, and the VC example, 12.23%, h = 0.249
As the influence of bounded rationality on sustainable energy decisions in buildings is largely unknown so far, the empirical evidence presented here can stimulate answers to questions such as how cognitive biases prevent the adoption of available technology, how this can be remedied and, on the other hand, how cognitive biases can be used in the design process in order to favour sustainable options
Summary
Buildings account for about 40% of global energy consumption and for roughly 39%of global material resource use [1]. Efforts to increase sustainability in the building sector focus primarily on technological innovations as well as policy [2] Whether these technologies are implemented depends on how decisions are made in building management, construction, and consumption. There have been strong technological developments in building technology that have made better building envelopes, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems, and sustainable on-site energy generation much more accessible and affordable. This means that it is technically and economically feasible to design and construct buildings with very low energy consumption and low embodied energy
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