Pledges counteract the boomerang effect in a sustainable showering intervention for children
Abstract Water scarcity has become a growing concern due to climate change. As fresh water is going to become increasingly scarce in the future, inculcating water-conserving habits among young children is very important. We conduct a randomized field experiment that focussed on instilling the behavi...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
|
| Series: | Communications Psychology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00294-7 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Abstract Water scarcity has become a growing concern due to climate change. As fresh water is going to become increasingly scarce in the future, inculcating water-conserving habits among young children is very important. We conduct a randomized field experiment that focussed on instilling the behaviour of showering within 5 min among primary school children (N = 1121) in Singapore. Alongside an educational show emphasizing the importance of a 5 min shower, we introduced two commitment interventions—private and public (written) pledges—to nudge children to adhere to the 5 min shower time goal. Unexpectedly, the educational show and the 5 min shower time goal had an undesirable boomerang effect: children with a baseline shower time above 5 min reduced their shower time, while those below 5 min increased it, resulting in no net reduction. The private and public pledge-based commitments effectively countered the boomerang effect, reducing overall shower time and increasing adherence to the 5 min target. The commitment interventions achieved this by increasing the participants’ willingness to meet the target and by ensuring greater reductions for those more willing to reduce shower time. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2731-9121 |