Exploring Beliefs About Bottled Water and Intentions to Reduce Consumption The Dual-Effect of Social Norm Activation and Persuasive Information

Mass consumption of bottled water is contributing to a multitude of environmental problems, including; water wastage, pollution and climate change. The aim of this study is to advance a social-psychological understanding of how to effectively reduce bottled water consumption. An online survey experiment was conducted among students of a Dutch public university to examine outcome-beliefs about drinking less bottled water while subsequently testing three strategies for behavioural change. Respondents (n= 454) were randomly allocated to four different conditions (an information-only, social norm-only, a combination of both or a control group). It was hypothesized that the combination (i.e., norm-induced information provision) would be most persuasive and elicits the greatest change in intention. Results were consistent with this hypothesis. Findings also show that while beliefs about health, taste, water quality, lifestyle, the environment and perceived alternatives are all correlated with bottled water consumption, belief strength varies significantly based on rate of consumption.

[1]  P. Stern.  Information, Incentives, and Proenvironmental Consumer Behavior , 1999 .

[2]  C. Seligman,et al.  The Evaluation of Information Campaigns to Promote Voluntary Household Water Conservation , 2000 .

[3]  Andrew F. Hayes,et al.  Computational procedures for probing interactions in OLS and logistic regression: SPSS and SAS implementations , 2009, Behavior research methods.

[4]  R. Mahler,et al.  Bottled Water: United States Consumers and Their Perceptions of Water Quality , 2011, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[5]  Winnifred R. Louis,et al.  Do as we say and as we do: The interplay of descriptive and injunctive group norms in the attitude-behaviour relationship , 2006 .

[6]  J. Lalumandier,et al.  Fluoride and bacterial content of bottled water vs tap water. , 2000, Archives of family medicine.

[7]  M. Rosenberg,et al.  News about Tap and Bottled Water: Can This Influence People’s Choices? , 2012 .

[8]  S. D. Raj.  Bottled Water: How Safe Is It? , 2005, Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation.

[9]  S. J. Kantola,et al.  The Role of Individual Differences and External Variables in a Test of the Sufficiency of Fishbein's Model to Explain Behavioral Intentions to Conserve Water , 1982 .

[10]  John T. Cacioppo,et al.  The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion , 1986, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.

[11]  Peter Blaze Corcoran,et al.  Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change , 2012 .

[12]  R. Cialdini.  Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , 1993 .

[13]  S. Barr,et al.  Behavioural attitudes towards water saving? Evidence from a study of environmental actions , 2006 .

[14]  C. Vlek,et al.  A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation , 2005 .

[15]  R. Wilk.  Bottled Water , 2006 .

[16]  C. Vlek,et al.  Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour : An integrative review and research agenda , 2009 .

[17]  Peter H. Gleick,et al.  The Myth and Reality of Bottled Water , 2005 .

[18]  Kevin O'Toole,et al.  Household water use behavior: an integrated model. , 2009, Journal of environmental management.

[19]  Steve E. Hrudey,et al.  Detection of Odour and Health Risk Perception of Drinking Water , 1999 .

[20]  P. Levallois,et al.  Evaluation of consumer attitudes on taste and tap water alternatives in Québec , 1999 .

[21]  S. Linden,et al.  The role of knowledge, learning and mental models in public perceptions of climate change related risks , 2012 .

[22]  Noah J. Goldstein,et al.  The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms , 2007, Psychological science.

[23]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[24]  Sander van der Linden,et al.  Towards a New Model for Communicating Climate Change , 2014 .

[25]  Nancy L. Markee,et al.  Antecedent precipitation as a methodological concern in attitude surveys on water conservation , 1999 .

[26]  Peter H. Gleick,et al.  The World’s Water , 2011 .

[27]  Kelly S. Fielding,et al.  Water demand management research: A psychological perspective , 2010 .

[28]  Noah J. Goldstein,et al.  Normative Social Influence is Underdetected , 2008, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[29]  Vladas Griskevicius,et al.  SOCIAL NORMS: AN UNDERESTIMATED AND UNDEREMPLOYED LEVER FOR MANAGING CLIMATE CHANGE , 2008 .

[30]  G. Gregory,et al.  Repeated Behavior and Environmental Psychology: The Role of Personal Involvement and Habit Formation in Explaining Water Consumption1 , 2003 .

[31]  Carl A. Kallgren,et al.  A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct: A Theoretical Refinement and Reevaluation of the Role of Norms in Human Behavior , 1991 .

[32]  San-Pui Lam,et al.  Predicting Intentions to Conserve Water From the Theory of Planned Behavior, Perceived Moral Obligation, and Perceived Water Right1 , 1999 .

[33]  San-Pui Lam.  Predicting Intention to Save Water: Theory of Planned Behavior, Response Efficacy, Vulnerability, and Perceived Efficiency of Alternative Solutions , 2006 .

[34]  Anne Maass,et al.  The role of social categorization and perceived source credibility in minority influence , 1988 .

[35]  Anna K. Harding,et al.  Risk Perception and Bottled Water Use , 2000 .

[36]  M. Oliver.  Attitudes and Inaction A Case Study of the Manifest Demographics of Urban Water Conservation , 1999 .

[37]  Wokje Abrahamse,et al.  Persuasive Normative Messages: The Influence of Injunctive and Personal Norms on Using Free Plastic Bags , 2013 .

[38]  B. Bates,et al.  Climate change and water: technical paper of the intergovernmental panel on climate change , 2008 .

[39]  Daan van Knippenberg,et al.  In-group prototypicality and persuasion: Determinants of heuristic and systematic message processing , 1994 .

[40]  Brad J. Sagarin,et al.  Managing social norms for persuasive impact , 2006 .

[41]  V. Corral-Verdugo,et al.  Environmental beliefs and water conservation: An empirical study , 2003 .

[42]  Maqbool Ahmad,et al.  Quality comparison of tap water vs. bottled water in the industrial city of Yanbu (Saudi Arabia) , 2009, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[43]  P. Bonate.  Analysis of pretest-posttest designs , 2000 .

[44]  Carol M. Werner,et al.  Guided group discussion and attitude change: The roles of normative and informational influence , 2008 .

[45]  J. Rossiter,et al.  The Predictive Validity of Multiple-Item versus Single-Item Measures of the Same Constructs , 2007 .

[46]  Linda Stalker Prokopy,et al.  What’s Wrong with the Tap? Examining Perceptions of Tap Water and Bottled Water at Purdue University , 2011, Environmental management.

[47]  M de Franca Doria,et al.  Perception of tap water risks and quality: a structural equation model approach. , 2005, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[48]  S. Greenfield,et al.  Health beliefs about bottled water: a qualitative study , 2009, BMC public health.

[49]  Bin Chen,et al.  Contamination of Canadian and European bottled waters with antimony from PET containers. , 2006, Journal of environmental monitoring : JEM.

[50]  H. Wilke,et al.  Prototypicality of arguments and conformity to ingroup norms. , 1992 .

[51]  Branden B. Johnson.  Comparing Bottled Water and Tap Water: Experiments in Risk Communication , 2002 .

[52]  Richard Osbaldiston,et al.  Environmental Sustainability and Behavioral Science , 2012 .

[53]  Catherine Ferrier,et al.  Bottled Water: Understanding a Social Phenomenon , 2001 .

[54]  M. Saleh,et al.  Chemical, microbial and physical evaluation of commercial bottled waters in greater Houston area of Texas , 2008, Journal of environmental science and health. Part A, Toxic/hazardous substances & environmental engineering.

[55]  Jillian Anable,et al.  An evidence-based review of public attitudes to climate change and transport behaviour - final report , 2006 .

[56]  J. Anable,et al.  AN EVIDENCE BASE REVIEW OF PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND TRANSPORT BEHAVIOUR , 2006 .

[57]  Bob Martens,et al.  Environment and Behavior Research in Austria , 2004 .

[58]  Carl A. Kallgren,et al.  A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct: When Norms Do and Do not Affect Behavior , 2000 .

[59]  Leila T. Worth,et al.  Processing of persuasive in-group messages. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[60]  Luis S. Pereira,et al.  Coping with Water Scarcity , 2009 .

[61]  S. Dolnicar,et al.  Water conservation behavior in Australia , 2012, Journal of environmental management.

[62]  P. Gleick,et al.  Energy implications of bottled water , 2009 .

[63]  P. Gleick,et al.  Bottled Water and Energy , 2012 .

[64]  J. Neyman,et al.  Tests of certain linear hypotheses and their application to some educational problems. , 1936 .

[65]  A. Kollmuss,et al.  Mind the Gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? , 2002 .

[66]  Noah J. Goldstein,et al.  Descriptive normative beliefs and conservation behavior: The moderating roles of personal involvement and injunctive normative beliefs , 2009 .

[67]  D. Terry,et al.  Congruent or conflicted? The impact of injunctive and descriptive norms on environmental intentions , 2012 .

[68]  D. O. Sears.  College sophomores in the laboratory: Influences of a narrow data base on social psychology's view of human nature. , 1986 .

[69]  M. Saleh,et al.  Chemical Evaluation of Commercial Bottled Drinking Water from Egypt , 2001 .

[70]  T. McMahon,et al.  Residential Water Use: Predicting and Reducing Consumption1 , 1994 .

[71]  Michael J. Ryan.  Behavioral intention formation : the interdependency of attitudinal and social influence variables , 1982 .

[72]  Kelly S. Fielding,et al.  An experimental test of voluntary strategies to promote urban water demand management. , 2013, Journal of environmental management.

[73]  B. Bates,et al.  Climate change and water. , 2008 .

[74]  R. Rice,et al.  A Communication Approach to Campus Bottled Water Campaigns , 2012 .

[75]  Virgínia,et al.  News release , 1984 .

[76]  R. Cialdini,et al.  New Ways to Promote Proenvironmental Behavior: The Application of Persuasion Theory to the Development Of Effective Proenvironmental Public Service Announcements , 2000 .

[77]  P. Sheeran,et al.  Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. , 2006, Psychological bulletin.

[78]  A. Nesdale,et al.  The Effects of Appraised Severity and Efficacy in Promoting Water Conservation: An Informational Analysis , 1983 .

[79]  Ilan Chabay,et al.  The Role of Knowledge, Learning and Mental Models in Perceptions of Climate Change Related Risks , 2012 .

[80]  Miguel de França Doria,et al.  Factors influencing public perception of drinking water quality. , 2010 .

[81]  Craig W. Trumbo,et al.  Intention to Conserve Water: Environmental Values, Reasoned Action, and Information Effects Across Time , 2005 .

[82]  Bradley E. Huitema,et al.  The analysis of covariance and alternatives , 1980 .

[83]  Peter H. Gleick,et al.  Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water , 2010 .

[84]  R. Cialdini.  CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Crafting Normative Messages to Protect the Environment , 2022 .

[85]  M. F. Doria.  Bottled water versus tap water: understanding consumers' preferences. , 2006, Journal of water and health.

[86]  R. Peterson.  On the Use of College Students in Social Science Research: Insights from a Second‐Order Meta‐analysis , 2001 .

[87]  David T. Neal,et al.  Habits—A Repeat Performance , 2006 .

[88]  D. G. Gardner,et al.  Single-Item Versus Multiple-Item Measurement Scales: An Empirical Comparison , 1998 .

[89]  Mary Heath,et al.  Perceptions about water and increased use of bottled water in minority children. , 2011, Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine.