Understanding Society asks its participants a range of questions based on household consumption and energy use. These include questions on consumer appliances within the household (such as fridge-freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher), questions on micro-generation of energy and green energy tariffs, and questions on dwelling type, number of bedrooms, tenure, household size, presence of central heating, fuel type and amount spent on gas and electricity.
Participants are also asked about energy-relevant behaviours at home, for example leaving the TV on standby and switching off lights in rooms that aren’t being used, waste-relevant purchasing behaviours (for example decide not to buy something because it has too much packaging or buy recycled paper products) and transport behaviours, such as whether they use public transport, walk or cycle short distances. The survey includes a single item on water use, asking whether participants keep the tap running while brushing their teeth.
The rich data that Understanding Society collects on households and individuals allows researchers to explore the interactions between environmental behaviour and other aspects of life, such as income level, education, age, household size and geographical location.
Example survey questions
- Who in this household is responsible for paying the bills, such as rent, mortgage, gas, or electricity?
- Which types of domestic fuel do you have in your accommodation?
- Are you up to date with all your household bills such as electricity, gas, water rates, telephone and other bills or are you behind with any of them?
- Do you agree or disagree that being green is an alternative lifestyle, it’s not for the majority?
- How much do you agree or disagree with the statement ‘ My current lifestyle means I need to own a car or van’?
Research opportunities
The energy and environment-related questions can be combined with the General Health Questionnaire to analysis participants’ mental and physical health over time. Understanding Society also collects blood samples and several bio-measures such as blood pressure, weight, height, waist measurement, body fat, grip strength and lung function to further support analysis.
Research that uses Understanding Society’s energy data
Data from the Study has been used for a wide range of energy and environment related research.
- Getting warmer: fuel poverty, objective and subjective health and well-being
- Just transitions, poverty and energy consumption: Personal Carbon Accounts and households in poverty
- Housing wealth and residential energy consumption
- Consideration of environmental factors in reflections on car purchases
- Awareness days and environmental attitudes: the case of the ‘Earth Hour’
- When will people pay to pollute? Environmental taxes, political trust and experimental evidence from Britain.
New environmental attitudes content
Understanding environmental choices and behaviour is an increasingly important topic for research and for policymaking. Understanding Society has included questions on environmental attitudes from Wave 1 of the Study and we are now reviewing this content to ensure our questions meet the needs of data users. Our Topic Champion for Environmental Behaviour, Professor Wouter Poortinga, has conducted a review of our environmental questionnaire content and has produced Working Paper with recommendations for a new environmental attitudes module. We are currently consulting on this new content and welcome feedback from researchers and policymakers.
You can read more about responding to the consultation here.
Money and finances
