Supporters and Opponents of Potable Recycled Water: Culture and Cognition in the Toowoomba Referendum

Abstract

Public opposition to potable recycled water remains an implementation barrier. A potable recycled water scheme was rejected in a referendum by the Toowoomba community of Queensland, Australia. Toowoomba is treated here as a case study. Focus groups were undertaken with supporters and opponents of recycled water to qualitatively explore influences on their voting behavior in the referendum. The theoretical frameworks of cultural theory and motivated social cognition are used together to analyze the values, beliefs, and psychological needs shaping recycled water attitudes and policy preferences. The results illustrate how popular value-basis theories play out at the local level through community recycled water discourse. Differences were observed in attitudes to uncertainty and change, and reliance on worldview arguments. Biases in information processing were revealed, with supporters and opponents selectively attending to information aligned with their own values. Worldview and selective cognition influenced levels of trust in authorities and perceived risk.