As much as I applaud Khurana's use of prospect theory in WASH behaviour change, I have to question whether or not we can really treat sanitation and hygiene practices as instances of decision-making. Kahneman's experiments were based on scenarios where people had to consciously decide between two clearly presented options: a risky gain or a certain loss. I'm not sure that people are making conscious decisions of the same nature when they openly defecate. Practices like open defecation are more subconscious and reflexive - the body has become habituated to doing certain things without needing a lot of thought put into it. There isn't really a clear moment of decision-making involved, and in fact simply getting people to stop and think about how they defecate right before they do it would be a huge feat. Where I think loss aversion would be effective in WASH is in getting people to install a toilet. That is a clear decision-making point where people stop and weigh possible gains and losses, unlike the actual practice of using a toilet which is more of a habit than a decision-making point.
Published by Stephanie Tam, WASH Expert at Cooperazione Internazionale
As much as I applaud Khurana's use of prospect theory in WASH behaviour change, I have to question whether or not we can really treat sanitation and hygiene practices as instances of decision-making. Kahneman's experiments were based on scenarios where people had to consciously decide between two clearly presented options: a risky gain or a certain loss. I'm not sure that people are making conscious decisions of the same nature when they openly defecate. Practices like open defecation are more subconscious and reflexive - the body has become habituated to doing certain things without needing a lot of thought put into it. There isn't really a clear moment of decision-making involved, and in fact simply getting people to stop and think about how they defecate right before they do it would be a huge feat. Where I think loss aversion would be effective in WASH is in getting people to install a toilet. That is a clear decision-making point where people stop and weigh possible gains and losses, unlike the actual practice of using a toilet which is more of a habit than a decision-making point.