TY - JOUR
T1 - Providing descriptive norms during engineering design can encourage more sustainable infrastructure
AU - Shealy, Tripp
AU - Johnson, Eric
AU - Weber, Elke U.
AU - Klotz, Leidy
AU - Applegate, Sydney
AU - Ismael, Dalya
AU - Bell, Ruth Greenspan
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based in part on work supported by The National Science Foundation , through Grants 1054122 and 1531041 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - Engineering design decisions can produce more sustainable civil infrastructure systems, but cognitive barriers to innovative thinking often inhibit such outcomes. Existing research shows how descriptive norms that provide decision-makers with information about how others decide in a given context, can encourage more sustainable choices among users. Research described in this article shows that descriptive norms can encourage more sustainable choices among designers of civil infrastructure. We asked research participants to complete a simulated design exercise after randomly assigning them to either a modified version of the Envision rating system for sustainable infrastructure (with a positive descriptive norm reflecting high sustainability performance among other designers) or the current version of Envision (with no descriptive norm). Participants exposed to the positive descriptive norm set goals that resulted on average in 28% more sustainability points than a control group. A positive descriptive norm, in addition to being effective by itself, also added to the effect of other choice architecture interventions (defaults and role model project) known to increase sustainability goals. These results show a specific example and the potential for widespread use of descriptive norms in choice architecture interventions to support design for greater sustainability in civil infrastructure.
AB - Engineering design decisions can produce more sustainable civil infrastructure systems, but cognitive barriers to innovative thinking often inhibit such outcomes. Existing research shows how descriptive norms that provide decision-makers with information about how others decide in a given context, can encourage more sustainable choices among users. Research described in this article shows that descriptive norms can encourage more sustainable choices among designers of civil infrastructure. We asked research participants to complete a simulated design exercise after randomly assigning them to either a modified version of the Envision rating system for sustainable infrastructure (with a positive descriptive norm reflecting high sustainability performance among other designers) or the current version of Envision (with no descriptive norm). Participants exposed to the positive descriptive norm set goals that resulted on average in 28% more sustainability points than a control group. A positive descriptive norm, in addition to being effective by itself, also added to the effect of other choice architecture interventions (defaults and role model project) known to increase sustainability goals. These results show a specific example and the potential for widespread use of descriptive norms in choice architecture interventions to support design for greater sustainability in civil infrastructure.
KW - Behavioral decision science
KW - Descriptive norms
KW - Envision rating system
KW - Sustainable infrastructure
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U2 - 10.1016/j.scs.2018.04.017
DO - 10.1016/j.scs.2018.04.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85045716088
SN - 2210-6707
VL - 40
SP - 182
EP - 188
JO - Sustainable Cities and Society
JF - Sustainable Cities and Society
ER -