Systematic Review of Household Water Conservation Interventions Using the Information–Motivation–Behavioral Skills Model

Abstract

Increasing droughts and water shortages are intensifying the need for residential water conservation. We identify and classify 24 water conservation studies using the information–motivation–behavioral skills (IMB) model by categorizing interventions based on content and water conservation effectiveness. This synthesis revealed several insights. First, all of the interventions used information, motivation, and/or behavioral skills, suggesting that water conservation interventions can be interpreted within the IMB framework. Second, interventions with two or more IMB components led to reductions in water usage, but the average effect sizes between different types of interventions were similar and there was a considerable range around these averages. To the extent that intervention effectiveness is driven by populations lacking specific IMB components, more elicitation research to identify gaps in specific populations could support greater effectiveness. Designing interventions explicitly with the IMB model would facilitate comparability across studies and could support a better understanding of water conservation interventions.

How Managers Can Reduce Household Water Use Through Communication: A Field Experiment

“…Second, a mailer may be a weak method to effectively educate households about behavioral skills. Nonetheless, this and similar studies report positive effects (also see recent review of messaging interventions, Ehret et al., 2020). Third, the mailings were limited by an inability to measure whether all members of the household saw the treatment or how often.…”

“…Second, the IMB model (Fisher & Fisher, 2000) provides a theoretical foundation that is congruent with the message content that water districts typically send: 1) general information about a problem (e.g., whether there is a drought), 2) motivating messages, and 3) suggestions for specific behaviors. A recent review of published water conservation studies showed that all messaging interventions designed to reduce water used some components of information, motivation, and behavioral skills even though none of the studies were explicitly informed by the IMB framework (Ehret et al., 2020).…”

“…Based on the IMB model as well as a review of household water conservation interventions (Ehret et al., 2020), we predicted that the intervention using all three components would lead to more water conservation than the control group, who did not receive messaging. In addition, we expected all households receiving messaging to reduce their water use compared to the control households.…”

“…According to the IMB model, behavior change is more likely when individuals are informed, feel motivated, and know which behaviors to change (Fisher & Fisher, 2000; Fisher, Fisher, & Shuper, 2014). A recent comprehensive review of published household water interventions showed that every messaging campaign included at least one element of information, motivation, and behavioral skills, despite none explicitly using the theoretical framework of the IMB model (Ehret et al., 2020). This indicates the practical value of assessing messaging interventions that are guided by the IMB model.…”

Motivation and climate change: A review

“…This leads to two discomfiting claims: behaviors that impact the environment are rarely explained by a conscious motivation towards nature, and conservation efforts will fail if the damaging behavior is easier, cheaper, or better serves social motives. Even deliberate conservation actions could be explained through core social motives (review; [88]), and meta-analyses suggest that the most effective interventions harness motives such as belongingness [24].…”