Supporting pollinators, resisting policy: The role of environmental attitudes and psychological reactance among farmers
Abstract
Understanding how psychological constructs shape farmers' views on agrienvironmental policy and the role of pollinators in agriculture can help design effective and legitimate agricultural policies. While farmers are key actors in pollinator conservation, recent farmer protests indicate that their support for agrienvironmental policies such as the EU Common Agricultural Policy eco-schemes is uneven and contested. This study examines how two psychological constructs-environmental attitudes and psychological reactance-relate to farmers' views on the role of pollinators for agriculture and agri-environmental policies. We conducted face-to-face surveys with 248 farmers in Spain and analysed the effect of the psychological constructs and farming variables using multiple linear regression. Farmers generally acknowledged the importance of pollinators for nature and agriculture and were aware of the impacts of agriculture on pollinators. Many rejected the idea that their own farming practices contribute to pollinators' decline. Views on the Common Agricultural Policy and eco-schemes were ambivalent. While some farmers valued the Common Agricultural Policy and eco-schemes' potential to promote sustainability, others viewed them as economically harmful, too rigid and designed without considering their opinion. 4. Positive environmental attitudes were associated with the recognition of the value of pollinators and support for agri-environmental policy. In contrast, psychological reactance was negatively associated with agri-environmental policy but unrelated to the recognition of pollinators' value. These findings suggest that awareness of pollinator contribution and resistance to top-down regulations operate as distinct forces shaping farmers' responses to agri-environmental policy. These effects held across multiple analytical methods and were robust to sociodemographic and farming system covariates.
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BibTeX
@article{munozulecia2026supporting,
title = {{Supporting pollinators, resisting policy: The role of environmental attitudes and psychological reactance among farmers}},
author = {Enrique Muñoz‐ulecia and Pilar Uldemolins and Alberto Bernués and Tiziana De-Magistris and Daniel Martín‐collado},
journal = {People and Nature},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1002/pan3.70428},
url = {https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05799838v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Supporting pollinators, resisting policy: The role of environmental attitudes and psychological reactance among farmers
AU - Enrique Muñoz‐ulecia
AU - Pilar Uldemolins
AU - Alberto Bernués
AU - Tiziana De-Magistris
AU - Daniel Martín‐collado
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/10
JO - People and Nature
DO - 10.1002/pan3.70428
UR - https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05799838v1
AB - Understanding how psychological constructs shape farmers' views on agrienvironmental policy and the role of pollinators in agriculture can help design effective and legitimate agricultural policies. While farmers are key actors in pollinator conservation, recent farmer protests indicate that their support for agrienvironmental policies such as the EU Common Agricultural Policy eco-schemes is uneven and contested. This study examines how two psychological constructs-environmental attitudes and psychological reactance-relate to farmers' views on the role of pollinators for agriculture and agri-environmental policies. We conducted face-to-face surveys with 248 farmers in Spain and analysed the effect of the psychological constructs and farming variables using multiple linear regression. Farmers generally acknowledged the importance of pollinators for nature and agriculture and were aware of the impacts of agriculture on pollinators. Many rejected the idea that their own farming practices contribute to pollinators' decline. Views on the Common Agricultural Policy and eco-schemes were ambivalent. While some farmers valued the Common Agricultural Policy and eco-schemes' potential to promote sustainability, others viewed them as economically harmful, too rigid and designed without considering their opinion. 4. Positive environmental attitudes were associated with the recognition of the value of pollinators and support for agri-environmental policy. In contrast, psychological reactance was negatively associated with agri-environmental policy but unrelated to the recognition of pollinators' value. These findings suggest that awareness of pollinator contribution and resistance to top-down regulations operate as distinct forces shaping farmers' responses to agri-environmental policy. These effects held across multiple analytical methods and were robust to sociodemographic and farming system covariates.
SN - 2575-8314
ER -