WC138 SeptOct 2024 - Flipbook - Page 33
pure, and sacred way. We use excessive personal care products,
remove body hair, mask natural scents with perfumes, and sit
on porcelain thrones to fortify the human-animal boundary.
Unfortunately for water reuse proponents, recycled wastewater’s history is a permanent link to human feces. Discussing water reuse publicly may surface an uncomfortable reminder that
humans defecate, just like living and dying animals do. Water
reuse further disrupts traditional water management practices
that have been a cornerstone of urban development—and our
detachment from nature—for more than a century in North
America. This norm transgression represents a cultural threat
by challenging dominant worldviews that we subtly rely on to
deny our creatureliness and manage our implicit death anxiety.
Conventional water infrastructure has kept wastewater systems
largely separate and invisible to the public while reinforcing
notions that freshwater is pure and superior to polluted sewage. These perceptions about “clean” versus “dirty” water can
contribute to the lingering contamination of a spiritual essence
despite all physical contamination being removed.
I suspect implementing water reuse might require asking
people to confront their creatureliness and human vulnerability
on multiple levels. Since no form of physical treatment can remove this mental association and awareness, it’s no surprise that
traditional communication efforts are inadequate for addressing
the public’s water reuse disgust and resistance.
Practical implications of a creatureliness connection
Creatureliness concerns and death anxiety are deep-rooted
and often subconscious psychological factors that will not be
moved by common-sense arguments. A strategically designed
outreach approach will be necessary to minimize, overcome, or
utilize creatureliness reminders and help people navigate mortality
fears. Especially as water reuse is often discussed in the context of
climate or water crises that also threaten life and livelihoods. These
reminders of our physical vulnerabilities have the potential to amplify water reuse disgust and rejection; when faced with mortality
awareness, people are especially sensitive to creatureliness reminders and motivated to reinforce the human-animal boundary to
manage death anxiety. I am testing TMT’s application as a tool for
understanding how death concerns influence water reuse decisions
and developing more effective behaviour interventions.
Specifically, I am analyzing results from an online experimental survey with 400 Ontario residents that was designed to test
whether recycled water reminds us that we are animals and triggers disgust to unconsciously manage death anxiety. I will enrich
and extend those findings with a subsequent social experiment to
compare the capacity for TMT—against information-rationality—based outreach to more successfully lessen disgust reactions
and encourage people to sample recycled water.
Disgust is multidimensional, yet this emotion’s connection to
cultural and symbolic processes has largely been neglected as it
relates to water reuse. We must challenge our assumptions and
explore new perspectives on water reuse disgust, acknowledging
the complexity of the human psyche, to more holistically understand and target the underlying emotional drivers. Otherwise, we
will continue to overlook potentially critical barriers to water reuse.
TMT could provide the key to more effective community engagement that can accelerate circular water management while saving
time and financial resources by being strategic in design.
Funding acknowledgement: this research was partially supported by SSHRC’s Insight
Grant (Wolfe 2018: 435-2018-0142); SSRC’s Canadian Graduate Scholarship (767-20200392); the Canadian Federation of University Women’s Dr. Alice E. Wilson Award (20212022[1408]); and Royal Roads University.
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