Promoting energy conservation through attention control and construct activation: A field test at a campus laundry

Increasing the frequency of laundering in cold water has been demonstrated to reduce energy consumption, but heated water laundering rates remain high. This is particularly true in wealthy, western nations. This paper describes an individual-level, situated intervention utilizing attentional control and construct activation to motivate cold water laundering. In Study 1, we report the first direct observational study of laundering in a field setting, finding that (a) only 21% of laundry loads were washed with cold water, and (b) behavioral, normative, and control beliefs were associated with laundering in cold water. In Study 2, we report an experimental field test of an intervention designed to increase rates of cold-water laundering. The intervention significantly increased cold water laundering (57%) compared to a control condition (25%). We also tested mediators of the intervention and laundering behavior association and observed that control beliefs fully mediated the relationship. We discuss the theoretical and practical contribution of these studies to the environmental psychology and motivational science literatures.