Cooperation and expectations of cooperation. Revised version of the paper presented at the fourth annual Marketing and Public Policy Conference, May 13-14, 1994, Washington, D.C.

The results of both a survey of utility customers and an experiment using role-playing students support the hypothesis that a person is more likely to install load control devices in their heating or cooling units (cooperate) if he or she thinks that others will cooperate. In addition, the authors find that, as predicted by the norm of reciprocity, customers who are more concerned about conservation are more influenced by their expectations of the cooperative intentions of other than are customers who are less concerned.