A product- and consumer-oriented survey and blind tasting experiment
Despite substantial price differences, environmental concerns, and rigorously controlled tap water quality, bottled water consumption has increased in recent decades. In an on-line survey (N = 578) and a blind taste test (N = 99), this ‘water paradox’ was examined by assessing perceptions and behaviors for tap and bottled water within primarily tap and bottled water consumers in a fully crossed-design. The combined product- and consumer-oriented approach, yielded significant consumer x product interaction effects. The two consumer groups showed ‘polarized’ ratings for taste, quality/hygiene, and health risks for the two water products, indicating that perceptions of the two consumer groups diverged substantially and even in opposite directions. Conversely, in the blind taste test, consumer groups did not distinguish tap from bottled water samples (consumer perspective) and tap or bottled water samples did not systemically vary in their ascribed taste and health-risk characteristics (product perspective). Although the beliefs of consumer groups differ greatly, the p erceived taste and health risk differences between the two products seem to reflect illusionary beliefs rather than actual experiences.