Trust and Signaling: An Exploratory Study of Residential Attitudes Towards Energy Efficiency Advisors and Outdoor Media

As the building sector shifts toward community-led energy efficiency (EE) initiatives to mitigate the climate crisis, scaling adoption requires understanding behavioral drivers. This study examines key drivers of EE measure adoption: perceived non-energy benefits, trusted advisors, and behavioral signaling. This research contributes to the energy policy and social science literature by empirically linking social trust with signaling preferences. It extends existing EE adoption decision theories by identifying distinct clusters of “expert” versus “close” advisors across demographic groups. Data from an experimental survey (n = 238) in Portland, Oregon, were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and multivariate regression modeling. Results indicate that saving money and better indoor air quality are the most valued benefits with significant missing survey responses for other non-energy benefits, perhaps indicating a lack of respondent understanding. While family and contractors remain the most trusted advisors, findings highlight a clear split between expert actors and close social networks. Signaling via yard signs is the most preferred method for signaling EE behavior (31%), though “super-participators” prefer multi-channel signaling. These findings suggest that practitioners should thoughtfully leverage social networks and diverse signaling media to improve the salience and increase the adoption of residential energy efficiency programs.