"Is Water a Human Right?": Priming Water as a Human Right Increases Support for Government Action

Abstract

Many First Nations homes in Canada do not have adequate water services. This issue is unlikely to be resolved without public pressure on the government. Thus, we investigated one strategy to increase non-Indigenous Canadians’ support for government action: framing water as a human right. Informed by a partnership with Indigenous community members and multidisciplinary collaborators, we conducted seven experiments that sampled non-Indigenous Canadian community members (N = 584) and university undergraduates (N = 274). Overall, framing water as a human right increased public support, relative to control conditions. Further, the human rights frame indirectly increased support for government action through increases in perceived suffering (physical and financial) and empathy. We discuss policy implications and end with a call for action.

“I definitely felt like I was there”: enacting empathy and negotiating a virtual reality Indian Residential School

“…Empathy is also an excellent predictor of support for reparations (Starzyk & Ross, 2008) and attitudes toward Indigenous Peoples in Canada (Starzyk et al, 2021). This echoes ideas and findings that empathy is important for prosocial behavior, as Batson (1991) explains in his empathy–altruism hypothesis.…”

“…Whether people act for only truly unselfish reasons is debatable and those who feel empathy may not act altruistically for several reasons, but on balance those who feel empathy toward a person or group are more likely to do something to help or act favorably toward them (Batson et al, 2007; Davis, 1994). Within the Canadian context specifically, empathy predicts support for better water and wastewater services being provided to Indigenous Peoples (Starzyk et al, 2021).…”

Indigenous Peoples understand human health relies on healthy waters

“…17 Consequences of not having clean running water include physical suffering, financial suffering, and psychological suffering. 33 Children have been born in First Nation communities grown into adults without ever having access to safe drinking water in their lifetime. 14 This translated to never being able to turn on the tap for a glass of water and in many instances not able to use the water to bathe especially, infants, children, and the elderly.…”