Familiar Taste, Safer Choices: Sensory Heuristics and the Adoption of Clean Water

Martín Rossi and Giulia Buccione ()
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Giulia Buccione: CEMFI

No 167, Working Papers from Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia

Abstract: We provide experimental evidence from rural Egypt on the benefits of considering sensory familiarity into the design of health interventions in developing countries. Using a “taste-preserving” filtration technology that mimics the local water profile, we find adoption rates of 91 percent, far exceeding the 50 percent ceiling previously documented for chlorinated water. Willingness to pay is 61 percent higher for filtered water compared to chlorinated water. Mechanism experiments show that familiar taste strongly shapes perceptions of water’s healthiness, suggesting that alignment with imprinted sensory preferences can meaningfully improve uptake of health technologies.

Keywords: chlorination; water-borne diseases; field experiments; Egypt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D10 I10 Q53 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2023-11, Revised 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ara, nep-dcm, nep-env and nep-exp
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https://webacademicos.udesa.edu.ar/pub/econ/doc167.pdf First version, November 2023 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Familiar Taste, Safer Choices: Sensory Heuristics and the Adoption of Clean Water (2025)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sad:wpaper:167

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