June

June 26, 2013 Guilt, Goals, and Mom: Human Behavior and Energy Use.

Social scientists came together at the Garrison Institute to discuss how receptive people are to energy saving techniques. Rutgers Professor and CECI Affiliate, Rachael Shwom, stated that people are more inclined to save energy when prompted by social media which helps the public to set personal goals to achieve energy savings. Professor Shwom examined the subgroup of motherhood, "I became a mom, and I felt really tired." She didn't feel like making the same effort to recycle, for instance, and she started noticing other exhausted mothers on Facebook saying things like, “I’m an environmentalist, but when I have kids all I want to do is move to the suburbs and throw my kids out on the lawn.” Or, “Yeah, I want an SUV so I don’t have to bend down to put my kids in.” But, when comparing mothers and non-mothers groups, she found that there was virtually no difference between the groups though research is ongoing. For more information click here.