Willingness to Invest in a Carbon and Water Neutral Future: Mobilizing Community Decision-Making and Anchoring Bias

This paper extends the heavily studied heuristic of anchoring bias to citizens’ willingness to invest in the sustainable infrastructural improvements in transportation, energy, and water necessary to achieve carbon and water neutrality in their city. A public-private-academic partnership formed between GLHN Architects & Engineers; City and County staffs; and university Bachelors of Architecture students used quantitative analysis and design inquiry to create augmented virtual realities (VR) and rendered visions of a carbon and water neutral future in Tucson, Arizona in 2050. This paper analyzes the results from three evaluation tools that measured over 200 citizens’ willingness to invest in this future after experiencing these new anchoring images and virtual realities: (1) verbal survey, (2) tactile graph, and (3) visual maps. The paper concludes that the introduction of new anchoring images can positively impact citizens’ willingness to invest in the necessary retro-fits in transportation, energy, and water infrastructure for a carbon and water neutral future.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.108.137

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ISBN
978-1-944214-26-5