Self-Reported and Actual Savings in a Water Conservation Campaign
Hamilton, L. C. (1985). Self-reported and actual savings in a water conservation campaign. Environment and Behavior, 17, 3, 315-326.
Data from a survey questionnaire of 471 customer households and from water utility billing records were used to compare self-reported and actual water savings during a conservation campaign. Self-reports were only weakly related to actual changes in water consumption. The accuracy of self-reports increased with household SES and with the extent of conservation behavior. The large and nonrandom error component makes self-reports questionable as a proxy for objective measures of overall water savings in conservation research. (19 ref)
