1.1.3. Salience

Both risk and trust perceptions are moderated by salience, or the degree to which drinking water topics are readily brought to mind or have strong associations for an individual [25,26]. For instance, residents with low salience about drinking water quality issues had a relatively high baseline trust in the water utility [27]. In that case, trust was positively related to familiarity with one's utility and negatively related to higher attention to changes in water quality. Anadu and Harding (2000) also found that, in cases where a water safety violation, such as coliform contamination or filtration issues, had occurred, increased awareness of that problem over longer durations was related to increased risk perceptions [40]. Because salience plays an important role in risk and trust evaluations, we expected that it may also be a significant contextual factor for an individual's behavior. For this study, we adapted aspects of Stewart's (2009) weather forecasting salience framework, which includes indicators such as event noticeability, event frequency, and an individual's knowledge, to form our drinking water salience conceptualization [31].

### 1.1.4. Tap Water Quality Evaluations

The taste, smell, and appearance of drinking water, referred to as organoleptic characteristics, are commonly cited factors for choosing filters or bottled water. Doria (2009) identified these organoleptic factors as the primary determinants of an individual's judgment of the quality of their tap water, showing a relationship between organoleptic factors and individuals' risk perceptions, trust, and decision to drink tap water [39]. Huerta-Saenz et al. (2011) demonstrated that organoleptic ratings drive preferences for bottled water consumption over tap water [41]. Triplett et al. (2019) also found that organoleptic perceptions are important in distinguishing between tap and household filtered water drinkers, even when respondents have similar risk perceptions about the safety, contamination, and health risks of unfiltered tap water [37]. Although organoleptic evaluations are clearly important in impacting drinking water behaviors, it remains unclear whether or when they are a reflection of objective preference, familiarity with a water source, or, in part, an artifact of other traits and perceptions [18,41,42].
