Measuring the Impacts of Different Messengers on Consumer Preferences for Products Irrigated with Recycled Water: A Field Experiment

• Author / Creator

  Schmidt, Alix

• This study tests how different messengers - scientists, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and newspapers - influence consumer behaviour. We conducted framed field experiments to compare the effects of these messengers on consumers’ monetary bids on different items produced with recycled and conventional irrigation water. Using recycled wastewater for agricultural irrigation has the potential to conserve substantial amounts of fresh water. Although it has been shown that using recycled water for irrigating for both edible and inedible crops can be safe for human consumption, people may stigmatize these products since the origin of the wastewater is too apparent. Providing consumers with information about recycled water can help ameliorate their negative perceptions, and the effectiveness of such information depends on who is the messenger. Our results suggest that participants respond least favourably to the scientist messenger and most favourably to the newspaper messenger. Further analysis shows that consumer responses to the scientist messenger fall into two general categories: (1) individuals who refused to place bids and (2) individuals who did place relatively larger bids in response to information from scientists.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Messengers
  • Recycled water
  • Willingness to pay
  • Field experiments
  • Consumer behaviour

• Graduation date

  Spring 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R34Q7R529

• License

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