Outlier

Only 9% of US households use more energy than average

Wait a second, that can’t be right.  It isn’t.

But that’s what is suggested by a fascinating new poll about how Americans view their own energy usage. According to a survey released earlier this month by AP and the University of Chicago, just 9% of respondents think that they use “a lot more” or “a little more” energy than other people in their community, while 89% think that they use about the same or less energy.

There’s a precedent for this so-called “illusory superiority” — the tendency that people have to overestimate their positive qualities and ability. For example, 80% of people rate themselves as above-average drivers.

Just one of a bunch of interesting results in the AP/NORC Center Poll on Energy Issues.

 

, , , , ,

About Outlier

Outlier explores trends in how people are using energy at home. Pulling from an unprecedented (and still growing) amount of energy data—currently drawn from 50 million homes—Opower crunches energy-use information from more than 75 utility partners every day, and cross-references that with weather, household, and demographic information to produce compelling analyses in the Outlier series.
Subscribe

Opower Elsewhere

Categories

Browse By Date