Reducing Waste Outflow to Motivate Water Conservation

Abstract

A novel intervention to increase water-conserving behavior was developed and tested. Behavior-change interventions range from information-based, where individuals have full control over whether they act on the provided information, to forcing/automation, where individuals have no control over the desired behavior. This study’s intervention was devised to be more forceful than providing information alone, but unlike forcing/automation, still allows individuals to control whether they perform the desired behavior. While resource-conservation strategies tend to target resource intake, the studied intervention examines whether limiting resource waste outflow can also limit resource intake. Specific to water, this study explored whether reducing wastewater outflow, causing accumulation, can reduce water inflow. Data were collected online using simulations of handwashing at a sink, which had different sink-outflow rates. Amazon Mechanical Turk workers completed three randomly ordered handwashing simulations. Study participants (n = 72) significantly reduced simulated consumption of water when it accumulated quickly in the sink (p < 0.001). Participants reduced simulated water consumption, on average by 14% at lower outflow rates, as they decreased inflow rates to prevent sink overflow. In contrast to informational interventions that rely on user motivation, reducing outflow significantly decreased simulated water usage, independent of participant-reported performance of other pro-environmental behaviors. Thus, reducing outflow may be effective regardless of individuals’ motivation to act sustainably. Also discussed is the value of online simulations to test pro-environmental behavior interventions. Finally, limitations and next steps, including in-person testing, are outlined as future work.