Explaining crop residue management of smallholders in Punjab, India: An application of Value-Belief-Norm theory [Author Accepted Manuscript]

Straw burning causes serious air pollution and environmental degradation. Nevertheless, it remains the dominant straw management method in Punjab, India, probably because alternative methods are more expensive. We investigated why some smallholders are nonetheless motivated to non-burning. Following Value-Belief-Norm theory, we tested whether personal norms, rooted in values and beliefs, explain intentions of non-burning. We conducted 177 questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews with Punjabi smallholders. As values are understudied in such samples, we first examined participants’ value orientations. While biospheric and altruistic value items formed a single value orientation representing self-transcendence values, egoistic and hedonic value items neither formed separate value orientations nor a single one representing self-enhancement values. As expected, personal norms explained intentions of non-burning. Partly supporting Value-Belief-Norm theory, stronger self-transcendence values were associated with heightened awareness of straw burning’s negative consequences and, in turn, stronger personal norms. Unexpectedly, smallholders’ belief that by non-burning they could help reduce negative consequences to the environment and others (i.e. outcome efficacy) was negatively associated with self-transcendence values, and only weakly positively with personal norms. Since personal norms, rooted in self-transcendence values and beliefs, explained intentions of non-burning, targeting these norms and their underlying values and beliefs might be promising for promoting non-burning.