Influence of Self-Identity and Social Identity on Farmers’ Willingness for Cultivated Land Quality Protection

Hao Li, Junchi Liu and Wei-Yew Chang ()
Additional contact information
Hao Li: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Junchi Liu: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Wei-Yew Chang: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: Exploring farmers’ willingness for cultivated land quality protection (WCQP) is crucial for preserving land quality. The existing sociopsychological research often examines farmers’ WCQP from a single perspective—either self-identity or social identity—overlooking the structural relationship between the two. This oversight hinders the development of synergistic policies for cultivated land quality protection. Based on a micro-survey of 439 farm households in Shaanxi Province, China, this study constructs a theoretical analysis framework for farmers’ WCQP that integrates the structural relationships of self-identity and social identity. Self-identity is further subdivided into cognitive identity, emotional identity, and behavioral identity. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the study analyzes the impact of cognitive identity, emotional identity, behavioral identity, and social identity on farmers’ WCQP. Additionally, the moderating effects of social identity are explored. The results indicate that (1) based on the baseline regression results, farmers’ cognitive identity, emotional identity, behavioral identity, and social identity all promote WCQP among farmers; (2) the analysis of moderating effects further indicates that farmers’ social identity enhances the positive impact of cognitive identity on their WCQP. However, the moderating effect of social identity is conditional in shaping the impact of emotional identity on farmers’ WCQP. These findings remain valid after addressing endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. When farmers’ emotional identity is high, social identity strengthens its promotive effect on their WCQP, but when farmers’ emotional identity is low, social identity actually hinders this effect. Our research not only simultaneously considers both the self-identity and social identity of farmers but also delves into their structural relationship. This provides theoretical support and practical guidance for developing more targeted land quality conservation policies from a social–psychological perspective.

Keywords: farmers’ willingness for cultivated land quality protection; self-identity; social identity; structural relationships; SEM; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/9/1392/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/9/1392/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:9:p:1392-:d:1466835

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().