Intention to Conserve Water: Environmental Values, Reasoned Action, and Information Effects Across Time

ABSTRACT

We model intention and behavior toward water conservation using the theory of reasoned action in a form that includes environmental values with information seeking, exposure, and attention to information about water conservation. Data were collected by phone surveys in 1998 and 2000 in Reno–Sparks, Nevada, with independent samples of 405 and 463 respondents and a panel subset of 249. Path analysis of the independent samples demonstrates a model with good fit in which associations strengthen slightly across time but mean values remain static. Panel data confirm this finding and also show that much of the effect attitudes and norms exert on intention and behavior is associated with information. While intention does not directly predict behavior in the model, intention does present an indirect effect on behavior through information. We suggest that information as used in this study covers intermediary behavior in which enduring value systems and past behavioral patterns are reinforced.

Keywords:

• environmental values
• information
• theory of planned behavior
• water conservation

The work presented in this article was supported by a grant to the authors from the National Science Foundation (EPA–NSF Partnership for Environmental Research, Decision-Making and Valuation for Environmental Policy Section, grant SBR-9896386). The use of human subjects in this work was reviewed and approved by the University of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board, where both authors were faculty at the time of the study. Data on deposit at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, http://icpsr.umich.edu/index.html

Notes

Note. 1998, n = 405; 2000, n = 463.

Note. n = 249.