WATER CONSER VATION & WATER DEMAND MANAGEMENT
A behavioural response to the water crisis How can we guide some groups of people to alter their behaviour in order to benefit others? WASA speaks to Professor Syden Mishi from Nelson Mandela University about creating and sustaining social norms for water conservation.
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verybody is aware of the water crisis and the need to save water, and nobody wants to live a day without water. This is evident when there is a water outage – a municipality will receive an influx of calls and social media posts complaining about the lack of water and asking when it will be restored. But are people prepared to take steps towards saving water?” asks Professor Syden Mishi, associate professor and acting head of department: Economics, at Nelson Mandela University. He adds that optimal decision-making requires having full information, the time to process the information, and the ability to do so in a split second. “This is where things fail; individuals do not have this capacity. For example, people plan to take a ‘quick shower’, but they do not time themselves when they are in the shower. People go to the gym to burn calories, but will frequently opt for taking an escalator
over taking the stairs (where they can burn more calories). Individuals are not always rational.” Understanding human behaviour drivers The unconscious mind is responsible for 80% of our decision-making. It is fast, instinctive and emotional. Only 20% of our thoughts are slow, deliberate and logical. Therefore, it is incorrect to assume that making people aware of the problem and offering a solution will translate into a desired action. “Think about your own behaviour: does the fact that you should be doing something (like exercising regularly, eating healthier foods) translate into you doing it? Furthermore, many policies and interventions make the wrong assumption that if individuals are provided with the same information, they will process that information in the same way, resulting in an overall change in behaviour (water saving),” says Mishi.
Optimal decision-making requires having full information, the time to process the information, and the ability to do so in a split second
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Choice architecture Individuals make choices based on: • t he available information • s kills to process that information •a vailable time to search and process that information •a comparison of their choice with the choices made by others • t he implication a choice may have on their future and the future of others. “Imperfect information, cognitive limitations and time constraints can lead to an individual making a suboptimal decision. So, therefore, we need to carefully design the environment in which individuals are making choices, to help improve individual decision-making. One quick example is the knowledge of what is communicated, how (manner) it is communicated, and how often. The type of information, its design and the sequence help individuals to make the right decision. Simplicity is key. Detailed information is imperfect; it is timeconsuming to process,” explains Mishi.
