1.1.1. Trust

The intention to drink tap water directly, as opposed to drinking from bottled or personally filtered sources, has been tied to an individual's trust in their utility to deliver safe drinking water to them. Trust is a psychological state when one actor, the trustor,

accepts vulnerability based on the expectation that another entity, the trustee, will perform a certain action or behavior [32]. In a review of literature and surveys that examined individuals' decision to drink tap or bottled water, Doria (2006) found that when trust in tap water providers or bottled water companies is eroded, they are less likely to drink from those sources [18]. Saylor (2011) found that university students who trusted their local water utility to deliver safe drinking water were more likely to drink from tap water sources, while those who lacked trust in their governmen<sup>t</sup> and university were more likely to drink bottled water [21]. These results were supported in a survey of residents in West Virginia that found residents' decisions to drink from tap water sources were related to higher levels of trust in the water utility [33].
