Creating a water-saver self-identity reduces water use in residence halls

Abstract

Water scarcity is a pressing social problem. Attempts to increase conservation that focus on education or attitudes produce limited success. Installing efficient appliances reduces water use, but can be costly. Drawing from research that links identity to pro-social behavior, we reduce water use by creating a conservation self-identity using an existing collective identity. Students in apartment-style residence halls (n = 303) experienced a “water saver” identity-building campaign, received retrofitted fixtures that limited water use, received both, or received neither intervention. Appliance retrofits reduced actual water consumption. By itself, the identity-building campaign also reduced actual water use, but only for those who successfully internalized a water-saver self-identity. In isolation, the identity-building campaign produced as much actual water conservation as installing retrofits. Interestingly, combining retrofits and the identity-building campaign cancelled out conservation efforts, producing no change in water use. Thus, residents may exhibit reactance when interventions simultaneously target structural and personal factors.