Wong-Parodi, G, Bruine de Bruin, W and Canfield, C (2013) Effects of simplifying outreach materials for energy conservation programs that target low-income consumers. Energy Policy, 62. 1157 - 1164. ISSN 0301-4215
Abstract
Critics have speculated that the limited success of energy conservation programs among low-income consumers may partly be due to recipients having insufficient literacy to understand the outreach materials. Indeed, we found outreach materials for low-income consumers to require relatively high levels of reading comprehension. We therefore improved the Flesch-Kincaid readability statistics for two outreach brochures, by using shorter words and shorter sentences to describe their content. We examined the effect of that simplification on low-income consumers' responses. Participants from low-income communities in the greater Pittsburgh area, who varied in literacy, were randomly assigned to either original communications about energy conservation programs or our simplified versions. Our findings suggest that lowering readability statistics successfully simplified only the more straightforward brochure in our set of two, likely because its content lent itself better to simplification. Findings for this brochure showed that simplification improved understanding of its content among both low-literacy and high-literacy recipients, without adversely affecting their evaluation of the materials, or their intention to enroll in the advertised programs. We discuss strategies for improving communication materials that aim to reach out to low-income populations.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013. Elsevier. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Energy Policy. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Energy Policy,62,(2013) DOI10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.069 |
Keywords: | Readability; consumer outreach; energy conservation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Management Division (LUBS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 07 Jan 2015 10:29 |
Last Modified: | 21 Apr 2015 09:09 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.069 |
Status: | Published |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.069 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:82392 |