Year
2017
Season
Spring
Paper Type
Master's Thesis
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree Name
Master of Arts in General Psychology (MAGP)
Department
Psychology
NACO controlled Corporate Body
University of North Florida. Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Heather Barnes Truelove
Second Advisor
Dr. Dan Richard
Rights Statement
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Abstract
Climate change is currently threatening the livelihoods of farmers in developing countries. Psychological models have been developed to identify factors associated with adapting to climate change; however, little work has investigated the role of farmers’ risk attitudes in these models. We assessed perceptions of adaptation cost and adaptation intentions for five drought- specific adaptive behaviors among 550 farmers from 12 villages in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, as well as their attitudes toward risk. Results suggest that perceived adaptation cost and risk attitude are negatively associated with adaptation intentions. The conditional effect of adaptation cost on adaptation intention as a function of risk attitude was also investigated. Results showed that only farmers with risk averse attitudes were impacted by their perceptions of adaptation costs. These findings have implications for those interested in increasing adaptive practices of farmers in developing countries who face increasingly scarce water supplies.
Suggested Citation
Araujo, Brandon, "Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change: How Risk Influences Decision-Making" (2017). UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 744.
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/744