Blame Cognitive Biases When Efforts To Conserve Water Aren’t Effective

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As California’s drought draws national headlines, we look at what a psychology-minded engineer has discovered when it comes to conserving water at home. DAVID GREENE, HOST: There’s actually some new research into how people think about saving water and whether they are prepared to sacrifice. It might even offer some clues about why conservation efforts don’t always work that well. NPR’s social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam came in to talk about it. So what’s the research here?

SHANKAR VEDANTAM: Well, the research comes from Shahzeen Attari at Indiana University. She’s an engineer who’s also interested in human behavior. Attari recently surveyed Americans and asked them, how do you think you could conserve water in your own household? Now, before we hear what she found, David, if someone asked you how do you conserve water in your own household, what would you say is the single best thing that you could do?

GREENE: A shorter shower.

VEDANTAM: That’s exactly what I would say as well. Now, here’s the thing — when Attari matched people’s answer with the best science on water conservation, she found something very interesting. Here she is.

SHAHZEEN ATTARI: What we found was roughly 43 percent […]

Full article: Blame Cognitive Biases When Efforts To Conserve Water Aren’t Effective