A priming nudge targeting innovative farmers: A large-scale survey experiment

Douadia Bougherara (), Léa Gosset, Raphaële Préget () and Sophie Thoyer ()
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Douadia Bougherara: CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier
Léa Gosset: UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement
Raphaële Préget: CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier
Sophie Thoyer: CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier

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Abstract: This article measures farmers' innovativeness and the effectiveness of a priming nudge on their (stated) intention to adopt an innovation, namely the French "Low-carbon label" (LCL). The LCL is an innovative certification framework that provides farmers with a potential new "green business model," enabling them to generate income through the sale of certified carbon credits earned by reducing their own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Using 6,005 responses to an online survey with French farmers, we validate an original scale designed to measure farmers' capacity to innovate and find that innovativeness is positively correlated with stated intention to adopt the LCL. We then evaluate with a randomized experiment included in the questionnaire the net impact of a priming nudge, defined as exposure to a lexical field designed to unconsciously activate psychological factors, and implemented here with references to innovation in order to target the most innovative farmers. We show that the nudge has no detectable impact on the surveyed sample: it neither increases adoption intentions among the most innovative farmers nor discourages the less innovative ones. This absence of effect leads us to discuss the effectiveness of nudges when trying to influence farmers' high-stakes decisions.www.agropolis-fondation.fr/?lang=en. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the

Date: 2026-03-26
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Published in PLoS ONE, 2026, 21 (3), pp.e0345658. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0345658⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05571841

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0345658

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