Every day I wake up and I follow the same routine. I exit my bedroom and head down the hall to the bathroom. Once there, I lift the lid and proceed to empty my bladder. I complete the task and I flush the toilet without hesitation. The contents of the bowl disappear and swirls of water refill it. I then turn to the sink and proceed to wash my hands and face. This is immediately followed by a thorough brushing of my teeth. Most days I am half asleep and the thought of how much water this whole process has just consumed does not even cross my mind. As long as water flows when the lever is pushed or the handle is turned, most of us probably do not stop to question anything at all. But we should. Why? Because clean water is a natural resource and the world’s population continues to grow every day. Therefore, the number of people on earth consuming this limited resource continues to increase thus resulting in a water supply that is decreasing at an alarming rate.
Have you ever looked over at the bottle of water you have sitting next to you on your desk and thought, “what a simple product.” How much effort could it possibly take to produce such a product? After all, it is just water. But the truth is that a single bottle of water requires a lot of time and energy to produce. There is the process of removing the water from its source, the transport of the water to a facility for bottling and then the delivery of the final product to the store (Pennsylvania State University). As consumers, we travel to the grocery store and purchase a case of bottled water. In doing so, we never stop to consider the possible consequences of our action.
Recent data received from NASA satellites, indicate that many of the world’s largest underground reserves of water called aquifers are declining at worrisome rates (Frankel). Even more concerning is the belief that these reservoirs refill at extremely slow rates (Frankel). Clearly the infinite water supply that everyone wants to believe exists is just a fallacy. The question is, how do we stop the world from running out of water? How do we change people’s consumption behaviors before it is too late? Several studies were conducted in the 90’s which identified successful methods for positively changing consumption behaviors. A study by Siero, Bakker, Dekker, and van den Burg (1996) identified that energy consumption behaviors could be altered through the use of comparative feedback. A different study by Dickerson, Thibodeau, Aronson, and Miller (1992) indicated that water consumption behaviors could be altered through the use of cognitive dissonance. Keeping these as well as other studies in mind, an intervention program could be established.
To encourage water consumption throughout the world both comparative feedback and cognitive dissonance could be utilized. A competition between countries could be established to see who is able to conserve the most water. Data would need to be provided to all citizens of the competing nations on a periodic basis in order to be effective. Advocates could then be selected to speak to others about the water supply issue and provide them with the various ways they can do their part to conserve water. These water conservation efforts might include installing energy efficient toilets, taking shorter showers, or turning the water off when brushing your teeth.
While these methods could play a key role in changing water consumption behaviors, it is also important that governments and large corporations do a better job of communicating the current water supply issue to the world. Increasing overall awareness of the problem and increasing the number of individuals that are held accountable for their actions will likely result in more conservative behaviors.
References
Dickerson, C.A., Thibodeau, R., Aronson, E., & Miller, D. (1992). Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22. 841-854.
Frankel, T. (n.d.). New NASA data show how the world is running out of water. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
Pennsylvania State University (n.d.). green.psu.edu. Retrieved online at: Sustainability.psu.edu
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Siero, F.W., Bakker, A.B., Dekker, G.B., & van den Burg, M.T.C. (1996). Changing organizational energy consumption behaviour through comparative feedback. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 16. 235-246.
I enjoyed your post. Your introduction describes my everyday morning to a tee. Unfortunately, the one difference is I stand in the shower for about five minutes before I begin to wash. As the water hits me, I am still in a semi-sleep state. I know it is wrong and I am trying to change this habit. As you stated water is not an infinite resource and we have to develop interventions to conserve our usage. Potable water will become scarce as the population of the world grows. The US Department of Defense puts out a report every four years pertaining to future security threats for America called the Quadrennial Defense Review. They are already forecasting human migration pattern and possible wars based on water scarcity and climate change (DOD, 2014). So we are in agreement that something has to happen to change people’s behavior.
I am in agreement with you that comparative feedback and cognitive dissonance should be used. For comparative feedback, a person’s nationality is an automatic group identifier. Look at how the Olympics galvanizes people with their country. You can see people keeping track of the medal count of the countries. So, if people are given information to conserve water they will do their best to see their nation win. As for cognitive dissonance, people do not want to feel hypocritical about their actions. Again, if given the proper information, they will conserve water to remove the dissonance. Helping their country is an added benefit. Maybe some sort of incentive could be provided to the winning country. For instance, a national holiday in the name of conservation would be awarded to the winner. The citizens of the winning country would get a paid vacation day and celebrate.
The only issue I see is with corporations. Many companies are for profit and are multinational. Their allegiance is to their shareholders. The interventions would have to be cost effective and not require a lot of capital investment. Unless, some sort of tax abatement is awarded. I would personally hope that the public relations for being a good global citizen would persuade them to do the right thing.
Overall, comparative feedback and cognitive dissonance are great ways to change behavior in water consumption. Our behavior must change because our planet is depending on it. All citizen are going to have to contribute and these interventions are a good start.
Reference:
Department of Defense, “Quadrennial Defense Review,” 2014
I enjoyed your post. Your introduction describes my everyday morning to a tee. Unfortunately, the one difference is I stand in the shower for about five minutes before I begin to wash. As the water hits me, I am still in a semi-sleep state. I know it is wrong and I am trying to change this habit. As you stated water is not an infinite resource and we have to develop interventions to conserve our usage. Potable water will become scarce as the population of the world grows. The US Department of Defense puts out a report every four years pertaining to future security threats for America called the Quadrennial Defense Review. They are already forecasting human migration pattern and possible wars based on water scarcity and climate change (DOD, 2014). So we are in agreement that something has to happen to change people’s behavior.
I am in agreement with you that comparative feedback and cognitive dissonance should be used. For comparative feedback, a person’s nationality is an automatic group identifier. Look at how the Olympics galvanizes people with their country. You can see people keeping track of the medal count of the countries. So, if people are given information to conserve water they will do their best to see their nation win. As for cognitive dissonance, people do not want to feel hypocritical about their actions. Again, if given the proper information, they will conserve water to remove the dissonance. Helping their country is an added benefit. Maybe some sort of incentive could be provided to the winning country. For instance, a national holiday in the name of conservation would be awarded to the winner. The citizens of the winning country would get a paid vacation day and celebrate.
The only issue I see is with corporations. Many companies are for profit and are multinational. Their allegiance is to their shareholders. The interventions would have to be cost effective and not require a lot of capital investment. Unless, some sort of tax abatement is awarded. I would personally hope that the public relations for being a good global citizen would persuade them to do the right thing.
Overall, comparative feedback and cognitive dissonance are great ways to change behavior in water consumption. Our behavior must change because our planet is depending on it. All citizen are going to have to contribute and these interventions are a good start.
Water is my favorite, and pretty much only drink. I no longer buy bottled water, unless I am in place in which I have no choice. My family has a Brita pitcher that I fill every day so that we can filter our tap water, and use reusable water bottles; I pretty much take a bottle with me everywhere I go. That being said, this topic is very scary to me, and one that many people choose to ignore, or are ignorant of the facts on the matter, and choose to remain that way.
I agree with you that in this country we tend to not think about how much water we waste in a day. We flush the toilet every time we use the restroom, we leave the tap running when we are brushing our teeth and washing our faces, we take long baths and showers, water our grass, and the list can go on and on. We don’t see the sheer devastation that not having access to clean and plentiful water can create.
I thought your idea of an intervention program to conserve water was interesting. I really just wondered how it would be implemented. Would the countries involved need to have comparative populations, economies, and social structures? Who would decide the rules for the competition, and how would they determine how much water was conserved? Depending on the time of year, and climate, would seasonal spikes in water usage be accounted for? I think this idea for an intervention is great, but I wonder if it would work on such a grand scale. Maybe, making it more of a competition between cities or states within this country might be an easier start for this type of intervention; if it worked, then it could be expanded to include a larger range.
The sad thing about this topic is that there are many people who don’t believe that it is a problem. I feel that until more people are educated on the topic of water conservation that not much is going to change.