Attitudes toward water conservation: evidence from a large sample of households in Germany

Based on randomized information treatments that were embedded in a large survey among more than 6000 single-family homeowners from Germany, we investigate the malleability of attitudes toward water conservation and a variety of conservation policies. The empirical results indicate that respondents generally have a positive attitude toward water conservation. Information treatments that included balanced or negatively biased information about the necessity of water conservation only moderately reduced this positive attitude. In addition, we find that respondents attribute a higher level of concern for water conservation to themselves than to people in their personal environment and the population in general. Conservation policies, such as price increases for heavy consumers, are accepted by the majority of respondents and perceived as fair, whereas smart water tariffs and frequent price increases are largely rejected.