To save or not to save? Let me help you out: Persuasive effects of smart agent in promoting energy conservation

Abstract

In public places, people’s energy conservation decisions and behaviors are easily suppressed by contextual and/or personal factors. To perform and maintain energy-saving behaviors, people need to be empowered both externally and internally. This research explored how a smart agent could help. The first study revealed that when a smart agent empowered people externally by offering help, people would be more active and resolute in decision-making and more likely to save energy, while some would be unaffected and decide to use energy. The second study found that the acknowledgement of behavioral impact could significantly facilitate people’s evaluation processes and enhance their self-efficacy, but such effects would be moderated by the time cost of a task, which was proved positively correlated with the perceived task difficulty. Both theoretical and practical implications for energy conservation were discussed, and six guidelines for smart agent design were proposed.