Creating a water-saver self-identity reduces water use in residence halls Robyn K. Mallett a, * , Kala J. Melchiori b a Loyola University Chicago, Department of Psychology, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60660-5385, United States b James Madison University, United States article info Article history: Received 14 September 2015 Received in revised form 29 June 2016 Accepted 17 July 2016 Available online 20 July 2016 Keywords: Ecopsychology Conservation Identity Behavior change Intervention abstract Water scarcity is a pressing social problem. Attempts to increase conservation that focus on education or attitudes produce limited success. Installing efficient appliances reduces water use, but can be costly. Drawing from research that links identity to pro-social behavior, we reduce water use by creating a conservation self-identity using an existing collective identity. Students in apartment-style residence halls (n ¼ 303) experienced a “water saver” identity-building campaign, received retrofitted fixtures that limited water use, received both, or received neither intervention. Appliance retrofits reduced actual water consumption. By itself, the identity-building campaign also reduced actual water use, but only for those who successfully internalized a water-saver self-identity. In isolation, the identity-building campaign produced as much actual water conservation as installing retrofits. Interestingly, combining retrofits and the identity-building campaign cancelled out conservation efforts, producing no change in water use. Thus, residents may exhibit reactance when interventions simultaneously target structural and personal factors. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Water scarcity is a pressing social problem. Droughts on the West Coast of the United States (US) and around the world threaten quality of life. Although many regions currently have ample water, the rate of water consumption is not sustainable. The average person needs about 13 gallons of water per day to prepare food and maintain proper hydration, sanitation, and hygiene (Gleick, 1996). Yet the average US citizen uses 98 gallons of water per day (Kenny et al., 2009). Many US citizens are unaware of their water waste, underestimating the water used in everyday activities by at least half (Attari, 2014). Therefore, we must identify barriers that people face for water conservation and determine how to effectively motivate residents, even in water-rich regions, to conserve water. Decades of research shows that attempts to regulate conserva- tion behavior using information and encouraging attitude change have been largely ineffective (Bamberg & Moser, 2007; McKenzie- Mohr, 2000). Given the difficulty in changing habits and instilling repetitive behavior (Kempton, Darley, & Stern, 1992), our first hy- pothesis is that it may be easier to change the environment and limit access to water using appliance retrofits. Retrofits change the context of behavior so that, by default, people use less water. However, there are potential problems with installing retrofits or installing efficient appliances. Although there are long-term benefits (e.g., lower utility bills), the upfront cost of installing ret- rofits or buying new appliances may be high. Moreover, individual behavior may override the contextual change. Specifically, people may alter their behavior to make up for low water flow (e.g., take longer showers to overcome low flow). Alternatively, people may believe that they do not need to conserve water because the appliance is conserving for them. We explore an untested way to regulate conservation behavior by employing psychological research on identity. People have multiple identities, spanning the spectrum from the personal to the group level (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). A self-identity is a label that a person uses to describe the self with regards to a specific behavior (Cook, Kerr, & Moore, 2002). Self- identities encourage people to embrace group values and person- ally engage in normative group behavior. For example, having a green self-identity is related to self-reported consumer behavior, waste reduction, and water and energy conservation (Whitmarsh & O'Neill, 2010). Indeed, adopting an environmental identity medi- ates the association between values or attitudes and behavior, * Corresponding author. E-mail address: rmallett@luc.edu (R.K. Mallett). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.07.001 0272-4944/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Environmental Psychology 47 (2016) 223e229