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The Psychology Behind Right Light Choices: Review and Research Agenda
Jennifer A. Veitch
Ph.D., National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Research in Construction, Canada Summary Lighting energy-efficiency depends not only on the choice of lighting equipment, but on how the installed equipment is used by building occupants after the designers and utility representatives have left. This paper reviews the relevant psychological theory and research that explain the processes involved in the adoption and use of energy-efficient lighting, with a particular emphasis on the role of the end-user. Facility managers and building owners often resist the adoption of new lighting technologies, fearing that individual users will not accept them. Failure to accept the new technology might reveal itself in an increase in the number of complaints about the lighting, or in attempts at local modifications, such as the addition of task lamps, that could nullify the information about individual beliefs and preferences concerning lighting hinders the decision-making processes involved in lighting design. The absence of information about individual beliefs and preferences concerning lighting hinders the decision-making processes involved in lighting design. At present, facilities managers, lighting designers, and building owners must rely on anecdotal information to support their decisions. Cognitive psychology has demonstrated that decisions made in this way are subject to predictable biases. The most easily recalled and the most vivid information will be weighed the most heavily; thus, one case of a failed application followed by user complaints will have a greater effect than hundreds of quietly successful uses of new technologies. Resource use models exist that classify the types of variables that affect individuals' environmental choices. One of the higher-order factors is economics. However, in most commercial settings, the costs of equipment and energy are not apparent to the end-user. Therefore, the lower-level factors: general beliefs about the state of the environment; specific knowledge about the effects of various choices; and, specific beliefs about the probable effects that various options might have on people will take on greater importance for explaining individual lighting choices in these settings. We know little about individual beliefs and attitudes with respect to lighting, but research on this topics is underway at the National Research Council of Canada and the University of Victoria, Canada. The results demonstrate that people do hold specific beliefs about how lighting affects them, and some of these beliefs are counter to current scientific knowledge. For example, a sizable portion of the population believes that fluorescent lighting is detrimental to health. "Right light" decisions will only occur if there exists a solid foundation of knowledge in place of anecdote and supposition. Lighting researchers must not only answer the pressing questions about the energy-efficiency and environmental impact of lighting products as they are used in the field, but must also determine the visual, psychological, and health effects they will have on people. Furthermore, this knowledge base will only be effective to the extent that it is communicated to all participants, from policy-makers to end-users. Research and education efforts must work hand in hand to improve the lighting choices made by each individual, for the sum of these individual acts is the success or failure of attempts at energy conservation.
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