Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Norms are widely recognized as an important driver of pro-environmental behaviors, particularly in an agricultural setting. Because people are affected by what others do, presenting information on others’ behavior can be utilized in behavioral public policy in the form of social norm nudges. Recently, it has been argued that it is not only averages but also distributions of behavior that matter. In addition, norms change over time, and perceiving a norm as dynamically shifting could change the perception of what behaviors may be appropriate in the future. The literature concerned with the impact of social norms on environmentally friendly farming practices has largely overlooked the role of distributions and dynamic norms. Thus, this thesis examines the drivers behind the adoption of climate change mitigation practices within the Swedish agricultural sector, with a specific focus on the role of social norms. Two distinct experiments with Swedish farmers were performed in 2025 and 2026, utilizing random treatment assignment of several different social information nudges. The results show that neither distributional nor dynamic norm nudges shift Swedish farmers’ willingness to adopt sustainable practices. The results are consistent between the two experiments and robust against different specifications.