Using influencers to encourage people to drink tap water

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

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Against the backdrop of climate change and dwindling water resources, supplying water to large metropolitan areas is becoming an increasingly challenging task for public authorities, who must find urgent solutions. One of the clearest and most viable ways forward is to incorporate recycled tap water into urban supply systems. However, despite being sustainable and safe, this option faces a major obstacle: consumers' instinctive, psychological resistance. Now, an international study led by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has identified a method that could prove key to overcoming resistance: influencer marketing.

Research led by Professor Inma Rodríguez-Ardura, coordinator of the UOC's Digital Business Research Group (DigiBiz), found that influencers on platforms such as Instagram use sensory and emotional content to build mental images, and that this is more effective than purely rational arguments for overcoming resistance to drinking recycled tap water and encouraging sustainable consumption. Recycled tap water is not consumed directly, but is fed back into supply systems, where it is mixed with water from other sources and subjected to the treatment processes required for human ingestion. The study, published in the British Food Journal, is based on the experience of 800 Instagram users from Barcelona and Phoenix. The authors also include Professor Antoni Meseguer-Artola and Gisela Ammetller, fellow members of the UOC's Faculty of Economics and Business.

The research team understood that, while there is a real and urgent need to encourage the consumption of recycled tap water in areas threatened by the climate emergency, the main obstacle to uptake is not its safety, but how it is perceived. Although recycled tap water is safe for human consumption if it has gone through appropriate water treatment systems, when people know that the source is treated and purified waste water, for many their instinctive reactions include rejection, fear and even revulsion. This visceral reaction is compounded by a widespread tendency among consumers to undervalue the supply of tap water, or take it for granted until a supply crisis occurs.

In this context, traditional communication strategies, based predominantly on technical data, scientific presentations and rational arguments about collective savings, are demonstrably insufficient for changing deeply ingrained habits. "Although sustainable water consumption objectively benefits society as a whole in the long term, just communicating this idea is not enough to get consumers' full engagement," said Rodríguez-Ardura. This is where influencer marketing comes in. According to the research, this tool helps make abstract benefits like sustainability more tangible, linking them to positive emotions and feelings, aspects that public institutions and supply companies have failed to exploit to date.

 

The power of mental imagery

The study centres on the concept of mental imagery and how social media, specifically Instagram, can be used to evoke it. The researchers set out to determine how the content created by influencers can generate subjective, transformative and compelling experiences for their followers. Rodríguez-Ardura, who is affiliated to the UOC-DIGIT research centre, explained the importance of this psychological mechanism: "Mental imagery is a subjective experience that involves conjuring up vivid feelings, objects, people or events, even if they did not happen or are not real. It's a type of feeling we create in our minds that makes things that were perceived as abstract, complex or distant seem tangible, understandable and real."

The research identifies two dimensions within this phenomenon: elaborated imagery, which the consumer creates voluntarily through cognitive effort (such as calculating how much plastic is saved by drinking tap water), and spontaneous imagery, which arises effortlessly or unconsciously, prompted by a stimulus. For example, a video of an influencer drinking recycled tap water out in the sunshine might automatically evoke mental images of it being refreshing and thirst-quenching, without the need for complex rational processing.

One of the key findings of the study, conducted on a sample of 800 Instagram users between the ages of 18 and 54, is the asymmetric impact of different types of message. Although informativeness is important for the formation of mental images, hedonic or sensorial content has a significantly greater impact. "To break down the barriers to sustainable water consumption, it's not enough to get people to understand that tap water is healthy and safe. It's also vital to recreate the experience of drinking it as something desirable, refreshing and emotionally satisfying," said Rodríguez-Ardura.

The study also explores the concept of "transportation", a psychological state of deep immersion in a narrative. The data reveals that mental imagery acts as a powerful antecedent or trigger for this phenomenon, leading the consumer to become so absorbed in the influencer's story that they lose track of time and feel part of the scene before them on the screen. Facilitating this vicarious experience reduces the capacity for critical thinking and opposition to the message. It fosters an enduring emotional connection that is key to transforming attitudes on sensitive issues, allowing us to experience the benefits of recycled tap water and its sustainable use before we actually taste it.

 

Implications for the future of public campaigns

The study's conclusions offer a clear roadmap for public institutions and bodies responsible for water management. It suggests that campaigns should not be limited to providing information, but should strive as much, if not more, to have hedonic and sensory appeal. If an authority wants to encourage the use of recycled tap water, its strategy should focus on helping the public to visualize and feel its positive properties.

"A public institution that promotes the use of recycled tap water in the urban supply system must focus its strategy on helping consumers to vicariously 'visualize' and 'feel' the positive properties of the water. This can be achieved, for example, through influencer marketing initiatives focusing on conveying the sensation of drinking, the freshness of the water, or doing healthy activities where drinking water is an emotionally desirable experience," said Rodríguez-Ardura.

 

A model applicable to other social challenges

These results have opened up new lines of research for the UOC team. They are now studying the impact of factors such as the authenticity and credibility of the influencer, the extent to which the audience identifies with the influencer, or whether messages are informative or hedonic. This communicative approach can be applied to other areas beyond water. The researchers point out that using mental imagery and transportation to persuade can be extended to other scenarios where there is resistance, fear or concern about health. "Scenarios where this new technique could be applied include campaigns to encourage people to vaccinate or recycle, or to combat climate change, as the key in all these cases lies in making an abstract benefit tangible through a positive sensory experience," they explained.
 

This project is aligned with the UOC's Digital transition and sustainability mission and contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6, Clean water and sanitation; and 12, Responsible consumption and production.

 

Transformative, impactful research

At the UOC, we see research as a strategic tool to advance towards a future society that is more critical, responsible and nonconformist. With this vision, we conduct applied research that's interdisciplinary and linked to the most important social, technological and educational challenges.

The UOC’s over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups are working in five research units focusing on five missions: lifelong learning; ethical and human-centred technology; digital transition and sustainability; culture for a critical society, and digital health and planetary well-being.

The university's Hubbik platform fosters knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship in the UOC community.

More information: www.uoc.edu/en/research

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Journal

British Food Journal

DOI

10.1108/BFJ-07-2025-0882 

 

Restoring the web of life in farmland

MSCA fellowship funds METAGROLAND project on optimising environmental farming schemes

University of Göttingen

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image: 

Do common measures used for Agri-environmental schemes (AES) – such as this permanent flower strip in agricultural land in the Northeim region in Germany – truly attract and maintain pollinator species in ways that support insect population growth across agricultural landscapes. The METAGROLAND project will investigate.

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Credit: Arne Wenzel

Dr Elena Velado-Alonso at the University of Göttingen has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship to launch “METAGROLAND: Understanding metacommunity dynamics through plant–pollinator interactions in agroecosystems to improve the efficiency of agri-environmental schemes.” Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are government-funded schemes set up to help farmers manage their land in an environmentally friendly way. The new 24-month project will investigate how AES can better sustain pollinator communities and the fundamental interactions that underpin plant reproduction and crop yields. Supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, METAGROLAND will develop tools to guide the design of more effective, large-scale AES and help build more resilient agricultural ecosystems.

 

Across Europe’s farmlands, biodiversity loss is a pressing challenge that leads not only to fewer species, but also to fewer interactions between them. These interactions drive essential ecosystem functions such as pollination and natural pest control. Evidence suggests that these functions are disappearing even faster than species themselves. METAGROLAND addresses this challenge by studying interactions between plants and pollinators. It will also test whether common AES measures – such as permanent wildflower strips or areas – truly attract and maintain pollinator species in ways that support insect population growth across agricultural landscapes. A distinctive feature of METAGROLAND is that it takes both a social and ecological perspective. The project will examine how land managers’ social networks – meaning how farmers exchange knowledge and make decisions – shape ecological outcomes. METAGROLAND will generate practical guidance for AES that align ecological processes with real-world management.

 

“Farmers and policymakers need conservation measures that work beyond single fields,” says Velado-Alonso. “By looking at the web of interactions – and how it spreads and persists across entire landscapes – we can redesign agricultural schemes to support both nature and sustainable food production.”

METAGROLAND will study interactions between plants and pollinators – such as this solitary bee visiting a flower.

Credit

Alfred Kok

Windows into the past: Genetic analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals a unique genetic time capsule in the Balkans

University of Oxford

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image: 

Team member Anargyros Mariolis, Director of Areopolis Health Center, has built deep bonds within the Deep Maniot community, through years of dedicated medical and social service. Photograph by A. Mariolis, with permission.

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Credit: Anargyros Mariolis

MORE IMAGES AVAILABLE VIA THE LINK IN THE NOTES SECTION

A new genetic study has revealed that the people of Deep Mani, who inhabit one of the remotest regions of mainland Greece, represent one of the most genetically distinctive populations in Europe, shaped by more than a millennium of isolation. The findings, published today (4 February) in Communications Biology, reveal that many lineages can be traced back to the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman period of Greece.

Set among rugged mountains, dramatic coastlines, and distinct stone tower houses, the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese, Greece, has long captivated travellers, historians, and writers, most famously, Jules Verne and Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor. Now, an international research group has found that the Deep Maniots living at the very southernmost tip of the peninsula form a rare genetic “island” within mainland Greece – predating the major population movements that reshaped the ancestry of mainland Greeks and other populations in the Balkans after the fall of Rome.

The research team, comprising scientists from the University of Oxford, Tel Aviv University, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Areopolis Health Centre, the European University Cyprus, and FamilyTreeDNA, found that Deep Maniots largely descend from local Greek-speaking groups living in the region before the Medieval era. In contrast to many other mainland Greek populations, they show little evidence of absorbing later incoming groups, such as the Slavs, whose arrival transformed the genetic and linguistic landscape of much of southeastern Europe.

The findings revealed that most paternal lineages trace back to Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman-era Greece. Their geographic and temporal dispersal lineages closely mirror the distribution of Deep Mani’s characteristic and globally unique megalithic residential and religious structures, supporting the hypothesis that present-day Deep Maniots may descend from the same communities that built and inhabited this landscape more than 1,400 years ago.

"Our results show that historical isolation left a clear genetic signature,” said lead author, Associate Researcher Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou (Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, Tel Aviv University, and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). “Deep Maniots preserve a snapshot of the genetic landscape of southern Greece before the demographic upheavals of the early Middle Ages and likely descend from the same people who constructed the unique type of megalithic buildings that are found exclusively in Deep Mani.”

He added: “Our study demonstrates how geography, social organisation, and historical circumstances can preserve ancient genetic patterns in certain regions long after they have become altered elsewhere.”

Maternal lineages, however, were found to be more diverse, reflecting sporadic contacts with populations from the eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus, western Europe, and even North Africa. Senior author Professor Alexandros Heraclides (European University Cyprus) said: “These patterns are consistent with a strongly patriarchal society, in which male lineages remained locally rooted, while a small number of women from outside communities were integrated. Our study is the first to recover the untold histories of Deep Maniot women, whose origins were largely obscured by male-centred oral traditions.”

The study also revealed that over 50% of present-day Deep Maniot men descend from a single male ancestor who lived in the 7th century CE. Such an extreme pattern points to a period when the local population was reduced to very few families, likely because of plague, warfare, and regional instability.

In addition, the research team used state-of-the-art tools from molecular biology that allowed them to date the origins of the founders of certain Deep Maniot clans and understand the relationships between them. As the study’s results indicate, the founders of some of the present-day clans lived in the 14th and 15th centuries, suggesting that Deep Maniot clans may trace their origin to that period.

“Many oral traditions of shared descent, some dating back hundreds of years, are now verified through genetics,” said Athanasios Kofinakos, co-author and research advisor on Deep Mani genealogical and historical matters. “Deep Mani’s geographical isolation and limited economic resources galvanised the warlike character of the locals. In such a harsh environment, family alliances became paramount for individual and collective survival.”

The team included researchers from FamilyTreeDNA, who curate the most extensive human phylogenetic trees. By carrying out high-resolution analyses of paternal (Y-chromosome) and maternal (mitochondrial DNA) lineages, the researchers compared Deep Maniot genomes with more than one million modern individuals from around the world, as well as with thousands of ancient DNA samples. The analysis found almost no matches to other populations, showing how isolated and distinctive Deep Maniots are from a genetic perspective.

The inhabitants of Deep Mani have long intrigued historians and archaeologists. While much of the Balkans experienced repeated waves of migration during Late Antiquity, historical sources describe Deep Mani as unusually resistant to outside control. Even the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905–959 CE) remarked on the Deep Maniots’ unusual origins, noting that they “are not of the lineage of the Slavs, but of the Romans of old who were called Hellenes.”* He further recorded that Deep Maniots continued worshipping the Olympian gods well into the 9th century,* which is an extraordinary oddity since the Empire had been fully Christianised many centuries earlier.

Together, these historical observations have long suggested that the inhabitants of Deep Mani followed a demographic and cultural trajectory distinct from much of the Greek-speaking world. The new genetic findings provide strong biological evidence supporting this view.

As many villages in Deep Mani are inhabited by a single clan, the research team worked closely with the community to ensure volunteers originated across multiple villages and clans, so that a representative range was included in the study. This approach was made possible by long-standing relationships of trust built over years of local medical and community service by co-author Dr Anargyros Mariolis, MD, Director of the Areopolis Health Centre.

Dr Mariolis said: "The community was engaged in every stage of the research – from planning our sampling strategy and helping their fellow Deep Maniots interpret the results of our research. This study gives a voice to the stories of our ancestors. As a Deep Maniot myself, I wish my forefathers could have witnessed many of their oral histories being verified through genetics. It is a moment of immense pride and connection to our history."

Looking ahead, the brother of Anargyros, co-author Prof. Theodoros Mariolis-Sapsakos, MD, (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), said: “The team aims to re-engage with the community to explore whether further genetic analysis on the Deep Maniot population may also be relevant for clinical and public-health research, ensuring that scientific insights continue to benefit the people who made the study possible.”

* Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio , ed. G. Moravcsik, trans. English by R. j. H. Jenkins, Washington 1967.

Notes for editors:

For media enquiries and interview requests, contact Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou leonidas-romanos.davranoglou@oum.ox.ac.uk and Caroline Wood: caroline.wood@admin.ox.ac.uk

The study ‘Uniparental analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals genetic continuity from the pre-Medieval era’ will be published in Communications Biology at 10 AM GMT / 5 AM ET Wednesday 4 February at https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09597-9. To view a copy of the paper before this under embargo, contact Caroline Wood: caroline.wood@admin.ox.ac.uk

Link to images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1krKg6XkFUwj7MQ0cFvJXXf4pkdZVEWAd?usp=sharing  These images are for editorial purposes ONLY relating to this press release and MUST be credited. They MUST NOT be sold on to third parties.

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Journal

Communications Biology

DOI

10.1038/s42003-026-09597-9 

Article Title

Uniparental analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals genetic continuity from the pre-Medieval era

Article Publication Date

4-Feb-2026

 

The collective memory of Deep Maniot culture is preserved through oral histories, lament songs, and family traditions that are carefully maintained by older generations. Shown here is the renowned Deep Maniot sculptor and painter Michalis Kassis (with lead author Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou), whose first-hand knowledge of Maniot oral history, genealogy, and settlement patterns provided invaluable cultural context that helped shape the study’s design. 

Photo by Vinia Tsopelas, with permission.

Interior of the church of Agios Georgios, which was built using a synthesis of classical, Roman, and Byzantine architectural elements and materials. Like this church, the genomes of present-day Deep Maniots are mosaics that preserve layers of ancestry tracing back to all these historical periods, revealing continuity across millennia in both material culture and  genetic ancestry.

 Photo by Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou.

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A Roman mosaic in Cape Matapan (also known as Cape Tainaro), thought to have been the floor of a bath. In the early Roman period, Deep Mani was a bustling centre of economic activity and attracted people from across the Empire. 

Photo by Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou.

The Deep Maniot landscape is dotted with tower houses, such as those in the village of Vatheia, shown here. These towers served both as fortified structures and as living spaces, each belonging to a particular clan. The new study was able to trace the origins of certain clan founders to the 14th century. Photograph by Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou.