Descriptive statistics and hypotheses testing using quan- quan-titative sociological surveys

The first quantitative study specifically conducted for the purpose of this research was a survey realised during Autumn semester 2009-2010 that allowed us to set up the basic concept of the hybrid model. A qualitative and quantitative survey was then conducted in Autumn semester 2011-2012 and, finally, a new qualitative survey in Autumn 2012.

The first survey conducted from September 2009 through January 2010 on a sample size of 393 people in Geneva area and was evaluated till March 2010. Random strat-egy was chosen to be able to make inferences. The questionnaire contained 18 multiple choice questions, 1 open question, and 8 socio-economic questions. To use the survey as a standard to compare the Geneva region with Romania results, the questionnaire has been carefully translated from French into English and Romanian. The three linguistic versions of the survey are in Annex 1. The results obtained were used to display descrip-tive statistics and to test 3 hypotheses.

Issue of perfect economic rationality, economic vs. extra-economic reasons to turn the lights on when entering a room, are measured in question 1 displayed in Tab. 5.7.

20.5% of respondents mention a reason outside of economic rationality, such as irrational fear of obscurity, need to see the entire room they are in, or a need to turn lights on in all the rooms.

Q1: For what reason do you turn on the lights when entering a room?

(2 answers possible)

N=393 Frequency % normalised %

Security 76 19.3% 12.3%

Comfort 128 32.6% 20.7%

Habitus 92 23.4% 14.9%

Esthetism 21 5.3% 3.4%

Bad vision 171 43.5% 27.7%

Fear of obscurity 23 5.9% 3.7%

Need to see the entire room 85 21.6% 13.8%

Need to turn lights on in all the rooms 20 5.1% 3.2%

Do not know 2 0.5% 0.3%

Total 618 157.3% 100.0%

Table 5.7: Issue of perfect economic rationality: economic vs. extra-economic reasons to turn the lights on when entering a room.

Issue of perfect economic rationality, the most important characteristics of a lighting bulb, are measured in question 2 resumed in Tab. 5.8. While people consider economic parameters first, almost a third of importance is given to non-economic properties.

Issue of perfect economic rationality, proportion of low consumption bulbs among

Descriptive statistics and hypotheses testing using quantitative sociological surveys 165

Q2: For you, what are the most important characteristics of a bulb?

(2 answers possible)

Most important feature Frequency % normalised %

intensity of light 190 48.3% 26.6%

consumption 156 39.7% 21.9%

product life 145 36.9% 20.3%

product price 75 19.1% 10.5%

colour of the light 70 17.8% 9.8%

warmth of the light 25 6.4% 3.5%

ecologic manufacturing 29 7.4% 4.1%

ecologic elimination 19 4.8% 2.7%

origin 1 0.3% 0.1%

other 3 0.8% 0.4%

total 713 181.4% 100.0%

Table 5.8: Issue of perfect economic rationality: the most important characteristics of a lighting bulb.

all the bulbs, is displayed in Tab. 5.9. As much as 33% of respondents either have no low-consumption bulbs at home or don’t know how many of them they have.

Q7: Among all the bulbs you have at home, how many of them are low-consumption bulbs?

Proportion of low

consumption bulbs Frequency Percentage Valid Answers Percent

do not know 60 15.3 19.3 100.0

total 311 79.1 100.0

missing answer 82 20.9

total 393 100.0

Table 5.9: Issue of perfect economic rationality: Proportion of low consumption bulbs among all the bulbs.

In the table 5.10, possible reasons to change the consumption of electricity are drawn.

From there, the yield and the cost of the information campaign can be deduced. Indeed, some information vectors have a zero cost. They are resulting from the social interaction of the person with the surrounding social environment (opinion of a relative, neigh-bour, colleague, or request from children). Some of them are subjective (modification of income). Others are objective and can indicate a price sensibility (important rise of electricity price). The proportion of the information campaign shows the importance of such campaigns.

However the most interesting result for us was the answer "Nothing would change my behaviour" showing the proportion of people who cannot be reached by either economic instruments or incitation through information campaign because their behaviour is not

depending on the cost or on their information. They have other reasons (extra-economic) to avoid any change and the only way to change their behaviour is an administrative ban on the concerned technology.

Q15: Your consumption of electricity could change because of (2 answers possible)

N=393 Frequency % normalised %

Opinion of a relative (neighbour, colleague, ...) 107 27.2% 18.1%

Information campaign in medias, ads 146 37.2% 24.7%

Request from your children 43 10.9% 7.3%

Modification of income 74 18.8% 12.5%

Important rise of electricity price 181 46.1% 30.7%

Nothing would change my behaviour 39 9.9% 6.6%

Total 590 157.3% 100.0%

Table 5.10: Possible reasons to change the consumer’s consumption of electricity.

Table 5.11 concerns the issue of perfect information: if you were better informed, would you be ready to abandon incandescence bulbs ? (Possible answers: Yes, No.)

Yes 69%

No 31%

Table 5.11: Survey on lighting bulbs (2010), Question 12, Issue of perfect information: if you were better informed, would you be ready to abandon incandescence bulbs ?

Survey on energy consumer behaviour (2010-2011). Results of analysis, people who declare to have no particular reflex to save energy when it comes to light, hot water and space heating. We see that part of people who say to have no particular reflex to save heat (invisible form of energy) is about 4.5 times higher than for light and hot water.

This has led to the formulation of the following hypothesis: People save energy forms they see. The issue is thus: how to make the heat consumption visible in order to bring people a possibility to see their consumption and change their attitude toward heat.

light 4.9 %

hot water 5.5 %

heating 23.0 %

Table 5.12: Survey on energy consumer behaviour (2010-2011). Parts of people who declare to have no particular reflex to save energy when it comes to light, hot water and space heating.

Remarks on sociological surveys 167