Individuals’ resistance to saving water: the cases of Argentina and Spain

ABSTRACT

Water management requires the participation of individuals who still seem to be reluctant to perform water-saving behaviours. Considering their country-specific water contexts, we analyse whether individuals’ water-saving behaviours depend on their resistance to change. Argentines and Spaniards (n = 1068) participated in two online surveys conducted using two panels and individuals whom interviewers recruited. Both resistance to change and perceived risk positively and significantly affect individuals’ water-saving behaviours. By contrast, the country of origin does not moderate water-saving behaviours. We discuss these findings’ scholarly and water policy implications at the national and supranational levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Water demand management
• water saving
• resistance to change
• perceived risk
• Argentina
• Spain

Author contributions

Francisco J. Sarabia-Sanchez: conceptualization, project administration, methodology, investigation, supervision, writing – original draft preparation, reviewing and editing; Juan M. Bruno: investigation, formal analysis, data curation, writing – original draft preparation and editing; Isabel P. Riquelme: validation, writing – original draft preparation, reviewing, and editing.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2023.2268214.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. RMSEA, root mean squared error of approximation.

2. DF, degrees of freedom.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any public or private money for its realization.