A lesson from the (literal) field

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How do you persuade people to adopt a new behavior?  It can be a challenge – even though they may know they should adopt that behavior.

Here is a lesson from the field (literally).  Small farmers in South America tend to be slow to adopt new technologies. Farming is a precarious job as it is, with low margins and unpredictable variables that can affect one’s livelihood. They are reluctant to add variables that could increase that uncertainty.

But a program called Lands for Life figured out how behavioral science could help farmers in Colombia adopt and spread more sustainable farming practices – and it works much better than the traditional approaches of “pay them,” “stop them,” or “tell them.”  It works better because farmers are convincing themselves.

Lands for Life identified three groups of farmers:

• Low-resistance farmers are easy.  Show them it works, make it simple, and they’ll adopt it.  Lands for Life also rewarded them with the title of Innovador (“Innovator,” in Spanish) to reward them for taking the plunge.

• Mid-resistance farmers need evidence of results and social proof.  The low-resistance farmers led peer-to-peer workshops and were guests on radio interviews, which provided both the evidence and social proof the mid-resistance farmers needed

• High-resistance farmers required evidence of results and social proof – plus social pressure. Low-key shaming, basically.  You have to be careful with that, but it worked in this case. The message was that if you don’t farm sustainably and pests spread from your farm to a neighbor or your use of pesticides eliminates a pollinator from the area, people will talk.

 As the article notes, as the new norm spreads, it becomes self-enforcing. Although this example is from agriculture, one can see how it could apply to many innovations, from persuading physicians or patients to adopt a new treatment, or convincing consumers to adopt a new technology.