The chance to have their names in the paper had motivated these resid-
ents to substantial conservation efforts for a period of a month.
Then the rug was pulled out. The researchers extracted the reason
that had initially caused these people to save fuel. Each family that had
been promised publicity received a letter saying it would not be possible
to publicize their names after all.
At the end of the winter, the research team examined the effect that
letter had had on the natural-gas usage of the families. Did they return
to their old, wasteful habits when the chance to be in the newspaper
was removed? Hardly. For each of the remaining winter months, they
actually conserved more fuel than they had during the time they thought
they would be publicly celebrated for it! In terms of percentage of energy
savings, they had managed a 12.2 percent first-month gas savings be-
cause they expected to see themselves lauded in the paper. But after
the letter arrived informing them to the contrary, they did not return
to their previous energy-use levels; instead, they increased their savings
to a 15.5 percent level for the rest of the winter.
Although we can never be completely sure of such things, one explan-
ation for their persistent behavior presents itself immediately. These
people had been lowballed into a conservation commitment through a
promise of newspaper publicity. Once made, that commitment started
generating its own support: The homeowners began acquiring new
energy habits, began feeling good about their public-spirited efforts,
began convincing themselves of the vital need to reduce American de-
pendence on foreign fuel, began appreciating the monetary savings in
their utility bills, began feeling proud of their capacity for self-denial,
and, most important, began viewing themselves as conservation-
minded. With all these new reasons present to justify the commitment
to use less energy, it is no wonder that the commitment remained firm
even after the original reason, newspaper publicity, had been kicked
away.
But strangely enough, when the publicity factor was no longer a
possibility, these families did not merely maintain their fuel-saving ef-
fort, they heightened it. Any of a number of interpretations could be
offered for that still stronger effort, but I have a favorite. In a way, the
opportunity to receive newspaper publicity had prevented the
homeowners from fully owning their commitment to conservation. Of
all the reasons supporting the decision to try to save fuel, it was the
only one that had come from the outside; it was the only one preventing
the homeowners from thinking that they were conserving gas because
they believed in it. So when the letter arrived canceling the publicity
agreement, it removed the only impediment to these residents’ images
of themselves as fully concerned, energy-conscious citizens. This un-
78 / Influence