10.2190/UBD5-4Y9B-61EF-WUM6 UBD54Y9B61EFWUM6 3 The Relative Effectiveness of Models and Prompts on Energy Conservation: A Field Experiment in a Shower Room 219 224 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 UBD54Y9B61EFWUM6.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=UBD54Y9B61EFWUM6 3 Elliot Aronson Michael O'Leary University of California at Santa Cruz Signs were placed in the field house shower rooms of a university campus exhorting people to conserve water and energy by turning off the water while soaping up. Making the signs more obtrusive increased compliance but also increased resentment. Far greater compliance was achieved through a combination of a sign and an accomplice modeling the appropriate behavior. Still greater compliance was achieved when two accomplices performed the requested behavior simultaneously. E. Aronson and S. Yates, A Social Psychological Perspective on Energy Conservation, unpublished manuscript, 1980. J. Darley and J. R. Beniger, Diffusion of Energy Conserving Innovations, <i>Journal of Social Issues, 37</i>, pp. 150-171, 1981. D. Leonard-Barton and E. M. Rogers, Adoption of Energy Conservation among California Homeowners, unpublished manuscript, Stanford University Institute for Communication Research, 1979. R. Winett, Systems Perspective on Residential Energy Conservation, paper presented at the 1982 AAAS Symposium, E. Aronson and P. Stern, Chairmen, 1982. R. E. Nisbett, E. Borgida, R. Crandall, and H. Reed, Popular Induction: Information Is Not Always Informative, in <i>Cognition and Social Behavior</i>, J. S. Carroll and J. W. Payne (eds.), <i>2</i>, pp. 227-236, 1976. C. Simons, Supermarkets: How They Grew, <i>The Smithsonian</i>, August 1980. J. W. Brehm, <i>A Theory of Psychological Reactance</i>, Academic Press, New York, 1966.