Bottled Water – A Cognitive Elixir?
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
Bottled water is a bit of a mystery. Its use has exploded and it is mainly purchased by people that have a nearly free source of water in their homes. We are paying a lot for something that is nearly free.
I have long argued that the popularity of bottled water stems from satisfying a cognitive need that tap water from our homes does not. And I am not talking about portability. An interesting new book by Peter Gelick, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, puts some teeth behind that argument.
Gelick, a renown water expert, drives down into the history, science and current use of bottled water to reveal the primary cause, namely our belief that bottled water will make us “healthier, skinnier, or more popular.”
There is little or no science to support this. The benefits of bottled water like the benefits of a new book on a fad diet or the purchase of a lottery ticket lie mainly in the hopefulness they make us feel. In short, the value is derived nearly exclusively from the mental state (think-and-feel) created by its use. A clear case of cognitive design in action.
