Normative Influence at Home In 2008, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (the electricity provider in Sacramento, California) randomly selected 35 000 of its customers and sent them electric bills like the one shown here. The bill did not just show how much electricity the customer had used; it also showed how much electricity was used by neighbours who lived in similar-sized homes. When the utility crunched the numbers, they discovered that customers who had received this “compare with the neighbours” bill had reduced their electricity consumption by 2 percent 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