Behaviour Change Wheel Driven Normative Feedback in a Serious Game for Energy Conservation

This paper proposes that normative feedback, grounded in Social Normative Theory and social comparison theory, is a promising and underexplored basis for serious games that promote household energy conservation. Drawing on the Behaviour Change Wheel, the authors first identify three priority home behaviours, turning off lights when leaving rooms, adjusting air conditioner use, and reducing standby electricity, selected for their impact, likelihood of change, spillover potential, and measurability. They argue these behaviours call for interventions targeting social opportunity and both reflective and automatic motivation, with feedback, social comparison, and individual rewards and sanctions identified as the most promising techniques.

The paper's central argument is that prior serious games, such as the Kukui Cup, which produced short-term reductions of up to 16% without sustained effect, and points-, badge-, and leaderboard-based designs, have failed to motivate lasting change. In response, the authors present Energy Explorer, a mobile prototype that links real-world smart-meter data to in-game resources, weather, and progression. Its normative mechanisms include clan-based leaderboards, comparison against a community-average descriptive norm, injunctive cues through character approval and disapproval and quest rewards, and "normative leaderboards" that pair players with peers of similar consumption rather than highlighting top performers.

The authors acknowledge several limitations. Peer-level comparison risks signalling that poor behaviour is typical, which they propose offsetting with injunctive cues. The use of sensitive demographic data to form peer groupings raises ethical concerns, and the smart-meter requirement may skew the participant pool toward already energy-conscious households. The design elements are presented as conceptual proposals meant to supplement existing game mechanics. Empirical evaluation of the game's effectiveness and long-term impact is left as future work.