Social norms effectively reduce household energy use yet research often focuses on moderate climates. Extreme heat could hinder energy-saving behaviors potentially requiring extra motivational triggers. Here we tested whether a social norm message when combined with secure attachment priming—a psychological mechanism triggering bonding and empathy—enhances energy conservation. In a preregistered field experiment in the United Arab Emirates (100 households 25600 observations over 9 months) we compared a standard social norm message against one enhanced with secure attachment priming (vs a control group). Results indicated that households receiving the combined message saved more electricity (9.98%) than those receiving the standard message (6.11%) showed greater efficacy in already efficient households had heightened effectiveness on hotter days and retained double the behavior changes post-intervention. During the study's final months the COVID-19 lockdown occurred revealing no significant usage differences between experimental groups from lockdown onwards.
