Behavioural intervention can influence households to save water: IIM-B study

Bengaluru : At a time when large urban centres like Bengaluru are facing acute water shortage issues due to growing population and rapid concretization, a new research by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) states that behavioural interventions alone can influence household water conservation that persists over the long term

Bengaluru : At a time when large urban centres like Bengaluru are facing acute water shortage issues due to growing population and rapid concretization, a new research by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) states that behavioural interventions alone can influence household water conservation that persists over the long term.

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In the research, the authors conducted a field experiment that implemented a habit change in an affluent community in Bengaluru.

“Humans are creatures of habit. When people act in a particular way repeatedly, such as taking a shower every day, they do it in an automatic mode without much conscious thought. That is why attempts to persuade people to conserve water by appealing to their better senses have had limited success. People may get influenced by these messages temporarily, but the force of habit eventually takes over and behaviour change is short-lived,” said Kanchan Mukherjee, one of the authors of the research, on Tuesday.

The research was conducted by Vivek, a recent PhD graduate, Deepak Malghan, Associate Professor of Public Policy, and Mukherjee, Professor of Organizational Behaviour, according to the statement.

The multi-year study implemented a framework for habit change, where automatic, unconscious behaviour, like taking a shower or brushing one’s teeth while leaving the tap on, were first brought into one’s conscious awareness through appropriate messaging.

“The intervention, which lasted for only five weeks, yielded 15-25% reduction in household water consumption. More importantly, the effect lasted for the entire observation period of two years after the intervention was stopped, establishing the potential of using behavioural methods to achieve significant long-term reduction in water consumption,” according to the statement.

The authors said that the results can serve as a powerful tool to address growing freshwater scarcities in cities.

“These findings also expand the scope of behavioural interventions to numerous other settings, such as in the larger environment and resource sectors, without the political and social difficulties associated with price-based policies,” said Malghan.