"Worse, participants who reported taking the most steps toward energy conservation had the least accurate perceptions of which ones saved the most energy."

That's a killer quote right there. I think bad newspaper science is to blame, there's too many articles printed on "do X to save energy NOW", without putting them in perspective, and only reinforcing some sort of feel-good effect in the readers.

The only thing that will work is cold hard measurements, and lots and lots of education.