Psychological influence on survey incentives: valuing climate change adaptation benefits in agriculture

Psychological influences affect the way people value the environment. However, traditional economic valuation models often do not account for how people are asked about valuing the environment. We examined how valuations by Nepalese farmers differ based on how the questions are asked and which incentives are provided. In a face-to-face choice experiment, incentive receivers spent more time than incentive non-receivers answering the survey, but were not more likely to choose a status quo option. Prepaid survey incentives had minimal effect on the stated welfare measures. The results suggest that prepaid incentives increase response rates, but do not increase welfare estimates. The findings also strengthen the methodological validity of our results, which indicated that farmers are willing to pay a substantial amount to secure climate change adaptation benefits on their land.