Hug, nudge, smack or shove: How do consumers react to a social dilemma?

There is consistent pressure on consumers – particularly vulnerable consumers – generated by the steady increase in energy prices. This pressure needs to be addressed to achieve sustainable electricity management at both the supply-side and demand-side. There are therefore two sides that can be influenced by interventions – the demand-side (those using the electricity, such as energy consumers) or the supply-side (those supplying the electricity, such as generators, distributors and retailers). This research deals with the demand-side by examining how interventions/levers on the demand-side can encourage consumers to use less electricity during event days (e.g., days of extreme heat or cold), reducing the load on infrastructure and helping to keep prices lower. To examine this issue, the current research combines social marketing and behavioural economics through the use of French’s behavioural forms exchange matrix (French, 2011). This research reports the results of two studies; study 1 was an experiment examining a context of general energy efficiency with a student sample. The second study was an experiment that examined the specific context of peak demand with a sample of general population adults. The four policy levers are taken from French’s (2011) behavioural forms exchange matrix, made up of four quadrants into which messages and other triggers may fall. These quadrants are Hugs (rewards), Smacks (punishments), Nudges (default choices) and Shoves (restricted choices). The results align with the three dimensions of the Motivation-Opportunities-Abilities (MOA) model as ways to enhance motivation, opportunity and ability (Ölander & Thogersen, 1995), and indicate that consumers in an energy efficiency context respond best to a moderate shove which is sustained over time, while consumers in a peak demand context respond to minor shoves but this effect decays over time. Contributing factors to the effect of the policy levers were pro-social propensity, citizenship type, and some demographics