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Receptiveness to advice, cognitive ability, and technology adoption☆
Bradford L Barham1, Jean-Paul Chavas1, Dylan Fitz2
1UW Madison's Agricultural and Applied Economics Department, United States.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
|August 15, 2018
Summary
High cognitive ability and low receptiveness to advice accelerate genetically modified (GM) corn seed adoption among farmers. This finding contrasts with the expectation that seeking advice always speeds technology adoption.
Area of Science:
- Agricultural Economics
- Behavioral Economics
- Technology Adoption Studies
Background:
- Technology adoption is influenced by individual characteristics.
- Receptiveness to advice can have complex effects, potentially hindering adoption for some individuals.
- Understanding these factors is crucial for predicting and promoting new technology uptake.
Purpose of the Study:
- To model technology adoption considering cognitive ability and advice receptiveness.
- To empirically test how these traits affect the adoption speed of genetically modified (GM) corn seeds.
- To identify the profile of early adopters in this context.
Main Methods:
- Economic modeling of agent behavior.
- Conducting economic experiments with US farmers.
- Measuring farmers' cognitive ability and receptiveness to advice.
- Analyzing the impact of these characteristics on GM corn seed adoption speed.
Main Results:
- Cognitive ability positively correlates with faster technology adoption.
- Receptiveness to advice has a differential impact: it speeds adoption for low-ability individuals but slows it for high-ability individuals.
- Early adopters of GM corn seeds were characterized by high cognitive ability and low receptiveness to advice.
Conclusions:
- The study provides nuanced insights into technology adoption drivers.
- Individual cognitive capacity and reliance on external advice interact to influence adoption rates.
- The findings highlight that not all advice-seeking behavior facilitates innovation, particularly for cognitively adept individuals.
Keywords:
Advice-takingCognitive abilityEconomic experimentsGenetically modified seedsLearningReceptiveness to adviceResponsiveness to adviceTechnology adoptionMore Related Videos
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