Friends, neighbors help influence our irrigation decisions, UF research shows

Are you going to water your lawn today? It sounds like an innocuous question. But irrigation takes on a new context when you consider the potential of peer pressure on outdoor watering habits. When you see a neighbor turning off their irrigation, do you water less? What do you use as your cue?

University of Florida researcher Laura Warner studies the social behaviors that lead us to use water and tries to get UF/IFAS Extension agents to use her research to teach residents to preserve the precious commodity.

Water scarcity is a statewide, national and global issue. Domestic water demand grew more than 600% from 1960 to 2014. About 75% of U.S. residential water is used outdoor, with more than half of it going to landscape irrigation.

So, it’s crucial to conserve water, especially in residential irrigation. Warner’s findings reveal the large extent to which we are influenced by what others do and what others expect.

Her newest research, published in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, shows that we are heavily influenced by what others do and what others expect of us. In other words, we take our lead from people beyond our significant other and our friends – even with issues such as irrigation. Armed with this new data, Warner believes she can help others lower their water use.

To reach her conclusions, Warner conducted a national online survey of 2,601 adults. She asked them questions about how they water their yards and whether they think different groups of people are engaged in conservation. She also measured people’s perceptions about how others expect them to act when using water.

“There is an opportunity to make water conservation more visible through conversations, with influential groups sharing conservation practices with those they influence,” said Warner, a UF/IFAS associate professor of agricultural education and communication. “To influence others, people who care about saving water need to explicitly share what they personally do to save water.”

On the other hand, the less you think your neighbors conserve, the more likely you are to conserve water. Instead of aligning with neighbors’ actions, it seems people conserve to make up for a perceived lack of conservation in their neighborhood, or don’t conserve because they think their neighbors are conserving enough for everyone. More research is needed to examine this interesting relationship, she said.

In her newest study, Warner uses terms like “referent groups,” who are people who may influence you.

“Let’s say I have the choice of going for a run in the evening or sitting around watching TV,” she said. “My husband is among my important others, and his actions influence my decisions to a great extent, but I may still be influenced by what the referent group, made up of my neighbors, does. In other words, if my husband goes for a run, I’m very likely to do so, but if I see a bunch of neighbors running by, I’m even more likely to go out and get some exercise.”

In her example, Warner said people she knows may do everything they can to save water, and they may expect her to save water, too.

“The bottom line is that conservation among people across the United States is more aligned with what they think others do versus what others expect,” Warner said. “Applied to my previous example, if my husband goes for a run, I’m more likely to do so myself than if I simply believe he wants me to go running.”

By the same token, if a person thinks most people are conserving water through good irrigation practices Warner said she’s more likely to do so.

“This is important because irrigation conservation is a somewhat invisible behavior,” she said. “I might mistakenly think most people don’t conserve because I don’t notice that a household’s sprinklers haven’t turned on or I may not see they have water-conserving irrigation technologies installed. In that case, I’m less likely to do so myself.”

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The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.

ifas.ufl.edu | @UF_IFAS

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Posted: April 28, 2021


Category: Water
Tags: Agricultural Education And Communication, Behavior, Conservation, Friends, Irrigation, Landscape, Laura Warner, Lawn, Neighbors, Norms, Peer Pressure, Perception, Referent Groups, Significant Others, UF/IFAS Extension, Water


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