Abstract
The wealth of information available on seemingly every topic creates a considerable challenge both for information providers trying to rise above the noise and discerning individuals trying to find relevant, trustworthy information. We approach this information problem by investigating how passive versus interactive information interventions can impact the antecedents of behavior change using the context of solar energy adoption, where persistent information gaps are known to reduce market potential. We use two experiments to investigate the impact of both passive and interactive approaches to information delivery on the antecedents (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in the Theory of Planned Behavior) of intentions and behavior, as well as their effect on intentions and behavior directly. The passive information randomized control trial delivered via Amazon Mechanical Turk tests the effectiveness of delivering the same content in a single message versus multiple shorter messages. The interactive information delivery uses an online (mobile and PC) trivia-style gamification platform. Both experiments use the same content and are carried out over a two-week time period. Our findings suggest that interactive, gamified information has greater impact than passive information, and that shorter multiple messages of passive information are more effective than a single passive message.
Highlights
The increasing presence of digital media has increased the ability of consumers to gather an abundance of information to aid decision-making and behavior change
TPB identifies three antecedents of intentions: attitudes toward the behavior formed from behavioral beliefs–beliefs about the likely outcomes of a behavior and the evaluations of those outcomes; subjective norms formed from the normative expectations of others and motivation to comply with such expectations; and perceived behavioral control (PBC) based on beliefs regarding factors that may enable or hinder the behavior [14,23]
Our participants are adults living in single-family homes, who are, a suitable population for the behavior under study, especially in comparison to student populations and employees that typically make up serious game and gamification study participants. Both of the experiments in this study use the same survey instrument based on the TPB framework to assess the impact of attitudes, normative beliefs, and perceived behavioral control on intentions and behavior related to residential solar adoption and how those constructs change in relation to passive and interactive information interventions
Summary
The increasing presence of digital media has increased the ability of consumers to gather an abundance of information to aid decision-making and behavior change. Bamberg et al (2003) apply TPB in a study on travel-mode choice going beyond understanding behavior and leveraging the theory to evaluate the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention in the domain of pro-environmental behavior [25]. They find that past behavior has limited effect on future behavior if the conditions or context of the behavioral decision change, which is relevant to technologies, such as solar, for which declining prices and technological advancement are consistent features of the landscape. Communicating this changing context to potential adopters becomes critical to the process of reassessing decisions to adopt or reject a technology as it evolves
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