Normative Influence at Home In 2008, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District randomly selected 35,000 of its customers and sent them electric bills like the one above. The bill didn’t just show how much electricity the customer had used, it also showed how much electricity was used by neighbors who lived in similar-sized homes. When the utility crunched the numbers, they discovered that customers who had received this “compare with the neighbors” bill had reduced their electricity consumption by 2% compared to customers who had received a traditional bill (Kaufman, 2009). Clearly, normative influence can be a force for good.
MAX WHITTAKER/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX