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Using less energy saves money and lowers greenhouse gas emissions.
使用節(jié)約能源不僅可以省錢還可以減少溫室氣體排放。
And various studies have looked at ways to get households to use less energy.
現(xiàn)在各方已經(jīng)將研究方向投向了家庭使用節(jié)約能源的方面。
Now there's evidence that people in such a study use less energy…because they're in a study.
現(xiàn)在有證據(jù)顯示人們正處于被研究的狀態(tài)下可以節(jié)約能源，因?yàn)樗麄冋诒谎芯慨?dāng)中。
The general phenomenon is called the Hawthorne effect:
這一現(xiàn)象被稱為霍索恩效應(yīng)：
study subjects change their behavior because they're being observed.
被研究的個(gè)體在被觀察時(shí)會(huì)改變其行為。
So researchers collaborated with a utility to test for the Hawthorne effect in electricity use.
因此研究人員們與一些公司合作檢測電力使用中的霍索恩效應(yīng)。
They monitored almost 5,600 randomly selected households.
這些家庭都是通過隨機(jī)選擇產(chǎn)生，大概有5600戶。
Half received a postcard saying that their energy use would be monitored for a month for research purposes.
一半的家庭會(huì)收到一張明信片，上面會(huì)稱他們的能源使用情況會(huì)因科學(xué)研究目的而被監(jiān)測一個(gè)月。
They also got four follow-up reminder postcards over the month.
接下來的一個(gè)月內(nèi)他們還會(huì)隨之收到4張?zhí)嵝衙餍牌?/div>
They received no other information, instructions or incentives.
除此之外，他們不會(huì)收到任何其它信息，比如指導(dǎo)或者鼓勵(lì)之類的。
The control group monitored for the study got no notifications.
對比組的家庭也是被監(jiān)測但是沒有被通知或者提醒說他們正在被監(jiān)測中。
That group continued using the same amount of electricity.
所以這個(gè)組的家庭們繼續(xù)保持和以前一樣的電力消耗。
But the families being tracked reduced energy use 2.7 percent.
而被告知監(jiān)測的家庭使用的電力減少了2.7%。
And when the study period ended, their energy use shot back up.
當(dāng)這個(gè)研究結(jié)束后，他們的能源使用突然就恢復(fù)常態(tài)了。
The report is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
該研究報(bào)告已在《國家科學(xué)研究進(jìn)展》上發(fā)表。
Clearly, mindful consumers can find ways to easily lower their energy consumption.
很明顯，被告知的消費(fèi)者能找到合適的方法輕松的降低自己的能源消耗。
Perhaps policy makers can find a way to use the Hawthorne effect to everyone's advantage.
或許政策制定者們能利用霍索恩效應(yīng)來處理能源使用問題。
