  Automation through IoT brings with it a whole new set of philosophical and
ethical implications that we barely began to address. However, it is widely
considered by many scholars as the panacea to overcoming the majority of
societal issues. The case of energy efficiency as an action for tackling
climate change is not different: demand-response proposals or occupancy-driven
energy management systems crowd the current research agenda on energy
efficiency. However, there are still very few studies that have reported the
effects of automation in the mid or long term beyond energy reduction (e.g.
emotional feelings derived to interact with automation, complacency to the
devices or perceived value of the automation throughout the time). In this
workshop article, we report scientific evidence of a study conducted in ten
workplaces during more than one year where we found that automating some
electronic devices of common use (i.e. moving away or preventing subjects from
the control of these devices) in favour of comfort and energy efficiency, is
associated with a reduction of the users' confidence in science and technology
as a mean to solve all environmental current problems and reduce the
willingness of people to act in favor of the environment.
