As populations increase and droughts intensify, water providers are using tools such as persuasive messaging to decrease residential water use. However, district‐led messaging campaigns are rarely informed by psychological science, evaluated for effectiveness, or strategically disseminated. In collaboration with a water district, we report a field experiment among single‐family households using persuasive messaging based on the information‐motivation‐behavioral skills model (IMB). We randomly assigned 10,000 households to receive different mailings and measured household water use. All messaging reduced water consumption relative to the control. On average, water use dropped 0.68 hundred cubic feet (HCF) (509 gallons) per household in the first month. Had all 10,000 single‐family, occupied, non‐agricultural residences been mailed the IMB messaging, more than five million gallons would have been saved in the first month. The effects declined but persisted for approximately three months and were three to six times greater in households with high water use (75th to 90th percentiles) relative to average water use. These findings suggest that combining message elements from the IMB model can reduce residential water use and that targeting high‐use households is particularly cost‐effective.

中文翻译：

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管理者如何通过沟通减少家庭用水：一项现场实验

随着人口的增加和干旱的加剧，水供应商正在使用诸如说服性消息传递之类的工具来减少居民用水。但是，以地区为主导的消息传递活动很少会受到心理科学的通知，无法进行有效性评估或进行战略性传播。我们与水区合作，报告了基于信息动机-行为-行为技能模型（IMB）的有说服力的消息传递对单户家庭的实地试验。我们随机分配了10,000户家庭来接收不同的邮件，并测量了家庭用水量。与控件相比，所有消息传递减少了水的消耗。在第一个月中，平均每个家庭的用水量减少了0.68百立方英尺（HCF）（509加仑）。是否已将所有10,000个单户居住，非农业住所寄给IMB消息，第一个月将节省超过500万加仑。这种影响有所下降，但持续了大约三个月，相对于平均用水量，用水量高的家庭（第75至90个百分位）高出三到六倍。这些发现表明，结合IMB模型中的消息元素可以减少居民用水，而且针对高使用率家庭的成本效益特别高。