Exploring Beliefs About Bottled Water and Intentions to Reduce Consumption

Abstract

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 explore outcome beliefs about drinking less bottled water while testing three strategies for behavioral 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 elicit the greatest reduction in intentions to buy bottled water. 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.

Public Awareness of Drinking Water Safety and Contamination Accidents: A Case Study in Hainan Province, China

“…These are different from some developed countries and some wealthy city in China. Bottled or barreled water consumption in these areas has greatly increased in the past decade [22,23]. Based on 2016 Hainan Environmental Status Bulletin, the water quality of surface water and ground water is good, and the qualified rate of water quality of surface water is 90.1% (and is considered as excellent by local authorities, which can be questioned), and there are not many accidental water pollution events in Hainan province except flooding and typhoons [24].…”

“…A few respondents used barreled or bottled water as their main household drinking water sources. Some studies have shown that when consumers are dissatisfied with the tap water provided by municipalities they often turn to bottled or barreled water [22,23]. Barreled and bottled water quality is regulated by the China Food and Drug Administration, but many local residents are peasants or fishermen who are not wealthy, thus, relatively expensive barreled or bottled water is not commonly purchased and used.…”

Using Pro-Environmental Information to Modify Conservation Behavior: Paper Recycling and Reuse

“…There have been numerous information-based initiatives that have attempted to change behaviors that can generate negative social spillovers, such as excessive alcohol consumption, drug use, gambling, and littering [5]. Other studies have shown that information campaigns can be effective in promoting environmental conservation behavior, such as reduced water use [5][6][7][8], reduced bottled water consumption [9], increased re-use of hotel towels [10], reduced electric energy consumption [1,11], and increased sustainable transportation behavior [12].…”

Why Buy Free? Exploring Perceptions of Bottled Water Consumption and Its Environmental Consequences

“…If reducing nonsustainable consumption behaviour is a goal, future research should seek to identify how the perceived benefits of bottled water identified in this study could be reframed and mitigated in marketing communications. To date, only van der Linden has undertaken research as to how this might occur, with his research suggesting that the dual effect of activating social norms and providing persuasive information has the most impact on decreasing intentions to purchase bottled water [54].…”