Psychological barriers to urban recycled water acceptance: a review of relevant principles in decision psychology

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews principles from decision psychology relevant to understanding and increasing acceptance of urban recycled water, and supplements existing literature by suggesting an additional factor: adaptation insensitivity. We integrate into our discussion previously unpublished results from a study conducted in 2007, which surveyed 2680 respondents in five American cities, identifying basic psychological features impacting resistance to recycled water. We focus on identifying targets for intervention, including the failure of respondents to realize that, with exposure, they would adapt to recycled water (adaptation insensitivity).

KEYWORDS:

• Recycled water
• adaptation insensitivity
• risk perceptions
• public acceptance
• water reuse

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, methodology and data collection, all authors; software, formal analysis, and data curation, P.R.; validation, all authors; writing—original draft preparation, P.R. and C.N.; writing—review and editing, all authors; funding acquisition, B.H. with support from P.R., C.N. and P.S. Revision – C.N. with support from B.H., P.R., and P.S.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant from the WateReuse Foundation, now Water Research Foundation [grant number WRF-04-008, Understanding the New Urban Water Customer].