Water Conservation:Moving From Awareness to Action

Wesley Schultz, Ph.D.

California State University

Breakfast presentation for Leadership North County. Wesley Schultz, Department of Psychology, California State University, San Marcos, CA, 92078. Wschultz@csusm.edu. (760) 750-8045.

January 27, 2009

About the Presenter Ph.D. in applied social psychology Academic position (professor) Consulting and training through Action Research, Inc. Numerous consulting, training, and marketing projects

Private: Southern California Edison (energy), Hewlett Foundation, SD Water Authority, Brookfield Zoo, EDCO Waste Management, KAB

State: California Integrated Waste Management Board (used oil recycling, waste tires), TN, FL, TX

Local and County: Napa, Madera, Los Angeles, San Diego Cities of Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Casper

Federal: National Academy of Sciences, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Justice, U.S. Air Force

International: United Nations, London Zoological Society, WWF

Conservation Means Behavior

Reduce consumption

Purchasing Decisions (landscaping)

New Technologies (low flow)

A Little Psychology

Scientific study of behavior People act for reasons Successful behavior change strategies

require an understanding of the individual and situational factors that motivate and/or constrain behavior

Many examples of failed (or not tested) and even boomerang effects

Tools for Promoting Water Conservation

1. Education Involves disseminating information Assumes that lack of behavior results

from lack of knowledge (this is generally not true)

Consistently across behavioral domains, research has shown small-to-null effects

So You Want to Change Behavior?

Tools for Promoting Water Conservation

2. Price Cost directly affects behavior Problems with price triggers:

Specificity (no spillover)—think incentives for low-flow toilets

Framing (conservation now framed as “transaction”)

Can potentially undermine long-term changes (Cialdini’s fence)

Tools for Promoting Water Conservation

3. Awareness Crisis can induce change Individuals rally around a cause (for a

short period of time) Crisis messages can boomerang if used

for too long And what happens when the crisis

passes?

Tools for Promoting Water Conservation

Social Norms A promising alternative Conservation often means deviating from

the norm (this message will boomerang) Need to promote community support:

Your neighbors are conserving People will disapprove if you don’t conserve How much you consume relative to others

Tools for Promoting Water Conservation

VIDEO CLIP

Can we reduce consumption? Yes, but new tools will be required Price-triggers can work (but come with side

effects) Information generally won’t work Awareness and crisis will work for a short

period Fostering social norms provides a promising

alternative

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