Making the planet green again: The interplay of attitudes and group norms in the conversion to organic farming

Abstract

Attitudes and social norms are key social psychological concepts that have often been considered as independent determinants of human behavior. However, questions about the interplay between the two are somewhat of a blind spot in social psychology. In the present research, we test the hypothesis that when an important change in norms is involved, behavioral intentions will be shaped by a discrepancy between personal attitudes and the perceived group norm, that is the perception of other group members’ attitudes. This proposition is tested and supported across three studies in a context of the conversion to organic farming, a behavior indicative of a significant societal and behavioral change. Farmers who did convert to organic farming were those who perceive other farmers to hold less positive attitudes toward this environmentally‐friendly practice compared to their own (Study 1a & 1b, N = 1,023). Among conventional farmers, the intention to convert to organic farming is also predicted by a discrepancy between personal attitudes and the perceived group norm (Study 1b). Finally, among agricultural colleges’ students (Study 2, N = 280), the intention to become an organic farmer was influenced by an interaction between attitudes and perceived group norm and not only by independent effects of these two variables. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for a better understanding of behavioral adaptation in times of social change are discussed.

Understanding individual and collective response to climate change: The role of a self-other mismatch

“… Khamzina et al (2021) , see also Deffuant et al (2022) call this interaction effect and its predictions “the mismatch hypothesis.” The first central idea in this hypothesis is that the mismatch between perceived social norms and personal attitudes can be a source of motivation to have high intentions to act pro-environmentally—notably when the individual perceived their personal attitude to be in favour of the behaviour but not the social norm. In a series of studies, Khamzina et al (2021) effectively confirm this hypothesis: intentions to convert to organic farming were significantly higher when the farmers’ attitudes and perceived social norms were mismatched (with the personal attitude being in favour and perceived norms being against), compared to the other possibilities.…”

“…Therefore, some researchers have hypothesized that people sometimes share their dissident opinion and that minorities can significantly influence opinions (Moscovici et al, 1969;Moscovici, 1991). Others have also suggested that observing a difference between one's personal attitude and perceived social norms is the starting point and can make us stand more strongly in our position and not conform to social norms (Khamzina et al, 2021;Deffuant et al, 2022). Khamzina et al (2021), see also Deffuant et al (2022) call this interaction effect and its predictions "the mismatch hypothesis."…”

“…Others have also suggested that observing a difference between one's personal attitude and perceived social norms is the starting point and can make us stand more strongly in our position and not conform to social norms (Khamzina et al, 2021;Deffuant et al, 2022). Khamzina et al (2021), see also Deffuant et al (2022) call this interaction effect and its predictions "the mismatch hypothesis." The first central idea in this hypothesis is that the mismatch between perceived social norms and personal attitudes can be a source of motivation to have high intentions to act pro-environmentally-notably when the individual perceived their personal attitude to be in favour of the behaviour but not the social norm.…”

“…Thus, part of climate change mitigation has now started to include research on what motivates these behaviours and how social change can occur. In this article, we empirically test the mismatch model ( Khamzina et al, 2021 ; Deffuant et al, 2022 ) to explain what can motivate individuals to act pro-environmentally on a group and individual level, and participate in normative change.…”

Can Biases in Perceived Attitudes Explain Anti-Conformism?

“…We first show the existence of anticonformist intentions in two already published studies [1], [2] (the datasets are publicly available [3]) that build on previous research about perceived group norms (PGNs) and pluralistic ignorance [4], [5]. The first study is about Eastern European farmers' intention to Manuscript received October 26, 2020; revised February 1, 2022; accepted February 11, 2022.…”