The temperature of the house you grew up in in May still affects you: ScienceAlert

Childhood habits can be hard to shake. And a new survey suggests that the way you set your home’s thermostat today may be a remnant of your upbringing.

A recent research study, “Turn Down the Heat to Save Watts,” suggests that the average American doesn’t turn down their thermostat very often, even though heating and cooling make up a large portion of most homes’ energy bills.

Instead, residents tend to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

“Specifically, individuals who grew up in warmer homes tended to maintain higher thermostat settings in their current homes, suggesting a lasting influence of early thermal environments on current temperature preferences,” He writes Organizational behavior researcher Dretjon Groda of Maynooth University in Ireland, and Paul Hanges, an organizational psychologist from the University of Maryland in the United States.

In the United States today, residential energy accounts for 21% of the country’s total energy consumption, and more than half of that goes to home heating and cooling.

Despite the fact that half of all households in the United States are empty during the day, many people continue to leave their heaters or air conditioners running, even when they are not present. Surveys Studies show that only 42 percent of American homeowners adjust their thermostats to save energy and costs.

Not only do such habits waste energy, they also add to household bills. And the new study suggests these preferences may be enacted in childhood.

“Understanding the drivers that drive consumer choice in heating and cooling is an important path to reducing the burning of fossil fuels.” He writes Groda and Hangis.

Together, the researchers surveyed 2,128 participants from across the United States. Participants were asked about the average winter thermostat settings in their homes when they were adults and children. They were also asked to rate their emotional connection to their community.

Those participants who now live in cold winter areas and who grew up in warmer homes. – The temperature is maintained at 26.67°C (80°F). – They prefer to keep their current homes warmer into adulthood than those who grew up in cooler childhood homes. – It has been preserved in 21.11°C (70°F).

Even when controlling for race, education, family income, and geographic mobility, the trend remained.

While childhood habits can be “deeply rooted and difficult to changeGroda and Hangis NBThis does not mean that it cannot be broken.

The degree to which a participant identifies with or is connected to their community has been shown to “strongly” influence the relationship between a person’s current thermostat use and their upbringing.

For example, people who have moved to cold winter areas, such as New York, and who have a strong connection to their local community tend to maintain a lower level of income. The thermostat is more than participants who do not feel they fit in well with their community.

Not surprisingly, people in warmer areas, like Florida, tend to use less central heating and air conditioning to cool their homes, even in the winter. But again, how well a person fits into their community can go a long way toward breaking this habit.

“Individuals who indicated high community fit reported higher home temperatures, possibly due to less air conditioning,” the psychologists say. NB.

This suggests that peers are influential in our energy use, but since community norms were not directly measured, the authors say their results should be interpreted with caution.

The results are based on self-reports, which does not guarantee that participants were honest about their thermostat settings in adulthood or childhood.

Additionally, the thermostat setting may not reflect the actual temperature of the home, which can be difficult to control, especially in older, less insulated homes.

Groda and Hanges argue that future research should refine these constraints and investigate the cultural factors that influence how people heat and cool their homes.

“Without understanding the underlying psychological mechanisms and behavioral motivations,” psychologists say, He writesWe will fail to explain “why rational consumers do not necessarily seek to improve their energy consumption.”

The study was published in Plus climate.