Encouraging agricultural drainage reduction behavior through group persuasion: A practical approach to solving local environmental problems

Abstract

We investigated the effect of group persuasion in encouraging farmers’ goal intention and behavioral intention pertaining to agricultural drainage reduction. As part of group persuasion, four experimental conditions were set up: emotional persuasion (E condition), rational persuasion (R condition), complex persuasion (emotional plus rational: E + R condition), and control condition that did not involve persuasion. An open-ended questionnaire distributed to participants a week after each workshop (n=39) revealed that neither the goal intention nor the behavioral intention was facilitated under the control condition. On the other hand, the behavioral intention was promoted under the E condition and the goal intention was promoted under the R condition. Furthermore, the E + R condition facilitated both the goal intention and the behavioral intention. As mentioned above, the effects of persuasion differed depending on the presented information. In order to encourage farmers’ agricultural drainage reduction behavior, it seemed important to present information in multiple ways.