EMPATHY CONDITIONED CLIMATE
CHANGE IN THE GREAT PLAINS:
“WALKING-IN-THE-SHOES-OF-OTHERS”
Gary Lynne and Mark Burbach
(with research contributions from graduate
students Robert Sheeder, Marianna Khatchaturyan
and Courtney Quinn)
THE PHYSICAL CONTEXT
Upstream and Downstream, Up Gradient and
Down Gradient
CAPACITY AND EMPATHY
Defines
the “Cap”
Carbon
becomes
a pollutant
when we
exceed the
capacity:
Need
“empathy
conditioned
pollution”
THE BEHAVIORAL CONTEXT
Homo-Economicus Evolving
(for further discussion of the behavioral aspects,
see http://metaeconomics.unl.edu/ )
WHAT IS OUR TRUE NATURE?
ON-GOING CO-EVOLUTION: MOVING
TOWARD HOMO EMPATHICUS
ENLIGHTENMENT REASONING
(LAKOFF, 2008, PP. 7-8)
 Conscious...know
what we think
 Universal…the same for everyone
 Disembodied…free of the body, and independent of
perception and action
 Logical…consistent with the properties of classical
logic
…REASON
 Unemotional…free
of the passions
 Value-neutral…the same reason applies
regardless of values
 Interest-based…serving one’s purposes and
(self)interests
 Literal…able to fit an objective world precisely,
with the logic of the mind able to fit the logic of
the world
HOMO ECONOMICUS IS EVOLVING
(THALER, 2000)
 After
      Will begin losing IQ
Will become a slower learner
Will become more heterogeneous
Will become more focused on understanding cognition
Will distinguish normative and descriptive theories
Will become more emotional
 After
   Thaler(2000)
Thaler and Sunstein (2008):
Need to distinguish “humans” and “econs”
Humans are subject to biases, temptation, overconfidence,
herd behavior, mindless choosing, poor calculators, etc.
Humans need to be “nudged”… need a kind of
“libertarian paternalism”
Own-interest
Self-interest
Biological
reality of
dual motives, two
incommensurable
utilities:
Rational Choice
is about tempering
self-interest within
the own-interest
Triune Brain Structure
Shared
Other-interest
Neocortex Neomammalian
Complex (balancing)
Paleomammalian
Complex (empathy)
ProtoReptillian
Complex
(ego)
(MacLean, 1990; Cory, 1999, p.10)
Own-interest
Self-interest
Shared
Other-interest
Biological
Neocortex Neomammalian
Complex (balancing)
reality of
dual motives, two
Paleomammalian
Complex (Empathy)
incommensurable
Protoutilities:
Reptillian
Complex
Rational choice
(Ego)
is about tempering
self-interest within
the own-interest
Triune Brain Structure (MacLean, 1990; Cory, 1999, p.10)
OVERALL BEHAVIORAL CONSIDERATIONS
 Errors
of Babylonians’ empiricism and Descartes’
theory at work here (after Politser, 2008):
 Empirical economics faces same problem as
Babylonians’ … their area of circle was a theoretical
problem (needed Euclid’s theory), in claiming,
empirically (not accurately measured):
 Theoretical economics (and mainstream economics has
become very theoretical) depends entirely on Descarte’s
claim that choice was all about reasonable, cognitively
conscious, rational choice: Feelings (emotions did not
matter)
Need a new “grand theory” that relies on both: Perhaps
this is Dual Motive theory, metaeconomics approach
 OVERALL…
 Politser(2008) notes the Empiricism in neurobiology and
Descartes theory in economics:
 Empirical neurological and psychological research has
unraveled the favored economic axioms
 Need new and modified economic theory (Descartes’
error needs attention) with more empirical support… a
new “grand theory”
 Work is underway to reconcile the empirical and the
theoretical in the emerging field of neuroeconomics…
and in the subfield of DM theory, the metaeconomics
approach, pointing to the role of empathy
 Need the continual interplay of theory and empirical
test as demonstrated in this Tuttle Creek Lake water
quality study
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS:
BRAIN MECHANISMS OF
THEORY OF MIND AND
EMPATHY
Tania Singer
Chapter 17
Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain, 2009
prepared by Marianna Khachaturyan
For Behavioral Economics course, 2010
INTRODUCTION
 Social
neuroscience = cognitive neuroscience + social
psychology
 Cognitive
the brain:
  neuroscience advanced our understanding of how
processes shape, color, smells, motion; recognizes objects;
discriminates sounds; grasps actions
enables us to perform higher –order cognitive operations
 Short- and long-term memory tasks, speech generation and recognition,
executive functions involved in planning, multi-tasking & selfmonitoring
 BUT implicit assumption is that understanding a single
brain is sufficient for understanding the behavior of all
humans
 It is NOT considering the fact that humans are inherently social
INTRODUCTION (CONT)
 Social
psychology seeks to understand phenomena in
terms of complex interactions between
   social factors and their influence on behavior
the cognitive processes underlying behavior
neural and hormonal mechanisms subserving cognitive
processes.
 Multi-level
approach like this requires the use of
multi-method research strategy, including methods :
   Behavioral measures (questionnaires …)
Neuroscientific imaging techniques (fMRI, EEG …)
Automatic measures (heart rate …)
INTRODUCTION (CONT)
Social neuroscience lines of research:
1. Investigation of basic social abilities
 2. Understanding other people’s minds
 3. Neural correlates of attending, recognizing and remembering
socially relevant stimuli (facial expression of fear,
attractiveness, racial identity, trustworthiness)
Their beliefs, intentions, feelings
Investigating moral and social reasoning in different
ways
  Moral reasoning is studied using moral dilemma tasks which
involve situations where all possible solutions to a given
problems are associated with undesirable outcomes
Social dilemma tasks involve strategies that differ with
respect to the social desirability of their outcomes
INTRODUCTION (CONT)
 Both
social neuroscience & neuroeconomics are
interested in understanding the nature of human
social interaction & human decision making and aim
to determine the neural mechanisms underlying these
complex social skills.
 Economic
decision making often takes place in the
context of social interactions.
 Game theory provides an effective quantitative framework
for studying how different pieces of information, incentives,
and social knowledge influence strategies optimal for social
interaction.
 Examples - Ultimatum and dictator games are prominent
INTRODUCTION (CONT)
• Players construct a “theory of mind” (p. 253)
• Game theory based on assumption – that people can
predict other people’s actions when they understand
their motivations, preferences and beliefs
• BUT economists know little about the mechanisms
that enable people to put themselves into other
people’s shoes and how these mechanisms interact
with decision making
INTRODUCTION (CONT)
 Social
neuroscientists & neuroeconomists started to
clarify the neural mechanisms underlying our capacity
  to represent others’ intentions, beliefs and desires (called
cognitive perspective-taking or theory of mind or mind-reading
or mentalizing)
to share others’ feelings (empathy)
 Metalizing
and empathizing are 2 distinct abilities
that rely on distinct neural circuits
 Example: Autistic patients often have deficits in cognitive
perspective-taking, while psychopaths are very good at
understanding other people’s intentions and thus
manipulating their behavior. BUT psychopaths lack empathy.
INTRODUCTION (CONT)
 Empathy
has often been related to morality, altruism,
justice, pro-social behavior and cooperation
 Empathy has epistemological and also motivational and social
role
 Evidence
: people help others more when they report
having empathized with them
 Example: Charitable donations
DEFINING CONCEPTS
 Ability
to understand other people’s thinking/feeling is
a essential component of our “social intelligence” and
is needed for successful everyday social interaction
 our capacity for human empathy
 Empathy
is a complex phenomena, though.
DEFINING CONCEPTS (CONT)
 According
to a neuroscientific perspective 3 main systems
rely on partially separable neural circuitries that all
subserve our capacity to understand other people’s:
1. 2. Motor intentions and action goals
Beliefs and thoughts  theory of mind, mentalizing, mindreading, cognitive perspective –taking
 3. Mentalizing – an ability to cognitively represent the mental states
of others without becoming emotionally involved
Feelings  empathy or emotional perspective
Empathizing - the capacity to share other people's feelings
 Sympathizing or showing compassion – not necessarily share the
same feelings
   Example: feeling sad
Emotional contagion – a reaction in which one shares an emotion
with another person without realized that the other person's
emotion was the trigger.
THE STUDY OF “THEORY OF MIND”
The term – in 1978 by Premack and Woodruff
The Neural Foundation
 Using imaging techniques - investigate which neural
structures underlie our capacity to reason about other
people’s internal states.
 Stories
are told on the basis of texts, abstract moving
shapes, cartoons, to subjects in the scanner who are
asked to understand the intentions, beliefs and desires
of the protagonist in the story.
“theory of mind”
THE STUDY OF “THEORY OF MIND”(CONT)
 Ability
to understand mental state concepts (desires,
goals, feelings) develops earlier than the ability to
represent the more abstract contents of mental states
(beliefs).
 The former relies on functions of MPC, the latter on TPJ.
 Game
theoretical paradigms used to investigate
mentalizing.
 Subjects are scanned while playing strategy games against
somebody sitting outside of the scanning room – studies
demonstrate MPC involvement.
THE STUDY OF “THEORY OF MIND”(CONT)
 mPFC
… medial Prefrontal Cortex (Medial Prefrontal
Cortex, MPC, in Fig. 17.1 in Singer) is involved when
people:
  mentalize about other people’s thoughts, intentions, beliefs
people are reflecting their own states.
 There
are functional differences between judging the
mental states of similar and dissimilar others.
  A more central part of the MFC was activated when
participants self-judged or judged people whom they perceived
as being similar to themselves (political attitudes,
appearance)
A more dorsal part of the MFC was activated otherwise
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS
The Mirror Neuron System
 Theory of mind research focuses on complex inferences about
abstract mental states (other’s beliefs ), another line of
neuroscientific research focuses on our ability to understand other
people’s goals and intentions by just observing their actions.
 Mirror
neurons - the first evidence for a brain mechanisms
which represents the subject’s and another person’s worlds.
 Basis for imitation  when we imitate someone’s actions we first
have to transform what we see (action perception) into our own
motor programs which allow us to generate a certain action
sequence
 A similar coding of the perception and generation of motor actions in
the human brain was shown using PET and fMRI techniques
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
 Some
suggest that mirror neuron system might play a
general role in understanding other’s intentions and
goals by providing us with an automatic simulation of
their actions
   This is in line with simulation theory developed in philosophy
Simulation theory holds that what lies at the root of our mindreading abilities - the ability to project ourselves imaginarily
into another person's perspective by simulating their mental
activity using our own.
Simulation approaches extended to the domain of actions and
feelings
 To understand what other people are feeling we simulate their
feelings using our own affective programs
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
Empathy: a shared network hypothesis
 In
addition to the ability to understand action
intentions or more abstract mental states (beliefs,
wishes), humans can also empathize with others 
share and understand feelings & emotions
 it happens in a variety of contexts, when others feel
basic primary emotions and sensations (anger, dear, sadness, joy, pain,
lust)
 more culturally variable secondary emotions (embarrassment, shame)
 THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
 fMRI
studies in humans provide evidence of shared
neural networks that enable one to feel what it feels
like for the other one to be in pain, disgusted, touched
 by just perceiving or imagining another person feeling pain,
disgust, touch without any stimulation on one’s own body
 Mainly
studies on empathic brain responses have
been conducted in the domain of pain
Experiments on couples - measuring pain-related brain
activation when pain was applied to the scanned subject (felt
pain) or to her partner (empathy for pain)
 Both activates the same affective pain circuits  if beloved one
suffers we suffer
  Even if unknown but likeable people
empathy
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
Individual differences in empathy
 Individual differences in empathic capacity can be assessed
using standard empathy questionnaires
 Developed and validated by psychologists
 Empathic Concern Scale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index
 Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale
 Analyses
on empathic brain responses revealed individual
differences in activity in empathy related pain-sensitive
areas (ACC and AI) and that those differences co-vary with
inter-individual differences in IRI and BEES scores.
 The higher scars on scales, the higher their activation on AAC
and AI
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
The role of Interoceptive cortex in feeling and empathy
 Before strong focus on the study of the role of
amygdala in emotional processing
 Now include another structure that plays a crucial role
in processing feelings: the insular cortex, specifically,
arterial insular cortex (AI)
  Sometimes called Interoceptive cortex b/c this brain region is
involved in processing a variety in info about internal bodily
states, including pain, taste, hunger, thirst, arousal
In 18th century Jakes-Lange theory argued emotions can not be
experienced in the absence of the bodily feelings
 Example, feel our hearts beating when fall in love or feel fear; feel
our stomachs constricting when we are under stress etc
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
 Imaging
studies focusing on the relationship between
peripheral measures of arousal and rain activity give
evidence for the crucial role of ACC and AI in the
representation of internal bodily states if arousal and
the awareness of these states.
 Using
  fMRI:
Anticipation of paid activates more anterior insular regions
Actual experience of pain activates more posterior insular
regions
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
Points to note:
 Training
the capacity to understand our own feelings
would go hand in hand with training the capacity got
empathy
 Evidence lacking
 Deficit
in understanding one’s own emotions should
be associated with empathy deficits
 Evidence slowly accumulating
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
Understanding others in psychopathology
 Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) – are pervasive
development disorders characterized by abnormalities
of social interaction, impairments in verbal & nonverbal communication, a restricted repertoire of
interests, activities
  People with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome
differ from ASD patients  they have high intelligence and
no impairment in verbal communication
People with ASD may lack mentalizing abilities, but maybe
not be deficient in the ability to share other’s feelings
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
 Psychopathy
– characterized as a personality disorder
mainly marked by a lack of empathy, narcissism,
impulsiveness, selfishness & instrumental use of
others and altered emotional sensitivity
 People with psychopathy lack empathy, but are unimpaired in
their understanding of other peoples thoughts and beliefs.
 NOTE:
no fMRI study has ever demonstrated a clear
dissociation between mentalizing and empathizing
deficits in psychopathy and autism
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
 Alexithymia
– a phenomenon involving a lack of
emotional awareness
  difficulty in identifying and describing feelings
difficulty in distinguishing feelings from the bodily sensations
of emotional arousal.
In 10% of general population
 In 50% of high-functioning patients with Autism
 Degree of severity of alexithymia correlated with less activation in
anterior insula
 THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
When do we care about others?
 The degree to which we have empathy feelings varies
as a function of situation factors
 Easier to empathize with someone who has treated one well
 Past
few years fMRI studies investigated the
modulatory factors on empathetic brain responses
 Evidence for the modulation of empathic brain responses to
another person’s pain as a function of the perceived fairness of
the other person.
Both genders in the experiments: activation in ACC and AI was
observed for both genders when a fair, likeable player was in pain.
 Men showed an absence of such empathic activity when seeing an
unfair player in pain
 Instead ↑activation in reward associated areas, which correlated
positively with desire for revenge
 THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
 The
magnitude of empathic brain responses is
determined by a number of modulatory factors:
   Emotional display in the suffering person (intensity of
emotions)
The relationship between the empathizer and the other person
The features of the empathizer (gender, emotional experiences)
THE STUDY OF EMPATHY AND FEELINGS (CONT)
 Prediction
1: people with a greater ability to empathize
should display more other- regarding behavior.
 Prediction
2: empathic motivation is a better predictor
of engagement in other- regarding behavior than
cognitive perspective-taking
 b/c empathy engages motivational and emotional brain
circuitries while theory of mind relies on networks typically
believed to be less relevant for motivation and emotions.
THEORETICAL MODEL
THEORETICAL MODEL
 DM
(Dual Motive) theory and the metaeconomic
framework proposes that the individual jointly
pursues an egoistic-hedonistic based self-interest
and an empathetic-sympathetic based
other(shared)-interest
 These dual interests are viewed as non-separable
and are jointly internalized within the owninterest of an individual
 The essence of DM theory is perhaps best
represented through the use of the following
figure (also see http://metaeconomics.unl.edu/ )
THEORETICAL MODEL: JOINT INTERESTS
Self-sacrifice (altruism)
in both domains of interest
Overall
model:
Broader
meaning
to rational choice,
includes ethics, the moral dimension
Self-control…on the path:
Operate on
automatic, in
subconscious
Empathy tempering
self-interest onto
path 0Z
THEORETICAL MODEL:
INCOMMENSURABLE UTILITY
THE AGRO-ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT
Moving to Food System Sustainability
through Empathy
COWBOY ECONOMY OR
SPACESHIP-EARTH ECO-ECONOMY?
ENTROPY (2 ) LAW POINTS TO
NEED FOR EMPATHY
ND
 “…
the taproot of economic scarcity (after
Georgescu-Roegen, 1976)”
 Time frame differences:
 Very
long run: Death of the sun
 Medium run: Confront decline of hydrocarbon
fuels, e.g. switch to wind energy, hydrogen
 Short run: Draw attention to catastrophic,
irreversible developments, such as from global
warming (intense hurricanes; drought in some
locations, excess in others; climate change)
…NEED FOR EMPATHY
“It is the normative problem that turns out to
be decisive: the transfer of thermodynamic
concepts into neoclassical environmental
economics was found to be unsatisfactory
mainly because of the demand for
intergenerational justice (Sollner, p. 194)”
CONSERVATION (1 ) LAW ALSO POINTS TO
ST
THE NEED FOR EMPATHY
 Business
and industry, economy and community
simply transform materials and energy: Only
changes its’ form
 Pollution is pervasive, as in midwestern U.S.
lakes draining agricultural lands
 Finding the best amount of pollution (in this case
in the Blue River Watershed-Tuttle Creek Lake,
Nebraska-Kansas, USA) takes empathy
AMORALITY OF ECONOMICS: NEEDS EMPATHY
TO FORM, MAKE EXPLICIT, THE MORAL
DIMENSION
 Khalil
(1998, p. 614) in responding to
commentary on Khalil(1997):
“…the bone of contention is not that the
neoclassical paradigm does not recognize moral
sentiments, which it certainly does. It is rather
about how to model such sentiments. For the
amoralist agenda, commitments are no different
from ordinary tastes and, hence, both are
smoothly substitutable at the margin. For the
moralistic decision, commitments are some kind
of pre-given precepts according to which human
behavior must be judged… it is possible to avoid
the implication of the moralist decision – viz.,
moral norms are metaphysically given – without
falling into the flat world of the amoralist view
which cannot account for some empirical
anomalies.”
ON THE SHIFT FROM AMORALITY THROUGH
EMPATHY-SYMPATHY TO EXPLICITLY INCLUDE
THE MORAL DIMENSION
 Not
new: Adam Smith* spoke of how the moral
sentiments were to temper and condition the
pursuit of profit on the way to a wealthy nation
 This is accomplished through, first,
empathizing… a strong version of the Golden
Rule… “standing-in-the-shoes-of-others (Obama,
2006)” and asking “how would I wish to be
treated”
 Outcome is, second, joining in sympathy with the
cause of environmental enhancement on the way
to ecological sustainability in the economy
FARMING IN SUSTAINABLE WAYS
Role of Empathy on the Way to a New
Other(Shared)-interest in Tuttle Creek Lake
Funded by USDA-CSREES National Integrated
Water Quality Program… focused on “behavioral
change”
OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Literature
Review
 Theoretical Model
 Empirical Testing
 Results
 Conclusions and Implications
INTRODUCTION
 U.S.
Farm Bill of 1936 included first conservation
provisions
 New provisions have evolved into complex
programs administered by USDA
 Funding for programs has substantially
increased
  $500 million in 1986 to $4.5 billion in 2005 (ERS,
2007)
Yet, most U.S. lakes draining farming areas are
heavily laden with chemicals, fertilizers and
sediments
INTRODUCTION
 Incentive
programs based in traditional
microeconomic theory
   Farmer is rational agent pursuing maximum profits
Conservation not inherently profitable
Only way to encourage participation, then, is to use
incentive payments
INTRODUCTION
• • If microeconomic theory is correct, the
substantive incentive payments should already
have eliminated the problems with water quality
(and related environmental quality) in farming
areas throughout the country
Empirical research and anecdotal observations
show this not to be the case
– – Wu, Adams, Kling, Tanaka (2004)
NDEQ Water Quality Report (2005)
INTRODUCTION
• • In reality, individual farmers are motivated to
engage in conservation programs by a multitude
of factors
Assumption that profit plays the only role in
conservation adoption is highly contentious
– – – Nowak and Korsching (1998)
Sen (1977)
Adam Smith (1757/1790)
INTRODUCTION
 Use
Dual Motive (DM) theory and the
metaeconomics framework (see http://
metaeconomics.unl.edu/ ) to go beyond and
transcend NC theory to analyze conservation
decisions
  Integrates both financial and non-financial
considerations into one coherent theory of human
behavior
Posits the need for integration and balance due to the
inherent jointness, and incommensurability, as
between the financial and non-financial domains
 Goal:
Determine what tendencies or factors
motivate farmers to engage in conservation
practices, with particular attention paid to tillage
LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Conservation
literature is extensive and diverse
 This study provides a sampling of three specific
types of research themes woven into the
conservation literature
   Financial Studies
Non-Financial Studies
Multiple-Motive/Multiple Utility Studies
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Financial
motivators are the most widely cited
account for conservation adoption on farms
 Examples
    Cary and Wilkinson (1997)
Lohr and Park (1995)
Cooper and Keim (1996)
Lichtenberg 2004
LITERATURE REVIEW
• • While the bulk of conservation literature focuses
on financial motives, there is still a considerable
amount of work published regarding the role of
non-financial motives in conservation adoption
Examples:
• • • • Ervin and Ervin (1982)
Supalla (2003)
Wallace and Clearfield (1997)
Maybery, Crase, and Gullifer (2005)
LITERATURE REVIEW
• • • It is clear that farmers can be motivated by both
financial and personal/attitudinal considerations
The conservation literature, though, has largely
stepped around using a systematic integration of
the two considerations into one coherent theory
of farmer conservation behavior
Recent Multiple-Motive/Multiple-Utility…
especially the Dual Motive, Dual Tendencies
studies have started to attempt this integration
LITERATURE REVIEW
• Dual Motive/Dual Utility Studies Applied to
Conservation Decisions
• • • • • • Lynne, Shonkwiler, and Rolla (1988)
Lynne (1995)
Lynne and Casey (1998) & Casey and Lynne (1999)
Sautter, Ovchinnikova, Kruse, and Lynne (2009)
Chouinard, Paterson, Wandschneider, and Ohler,
(2008)
Bishop, Shumway, and Wandschneider (2009)
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Intriguingly,
the theory of choice behavior
presented by Lynne et al. (going back to the late
1980s) and other recent contributors Chouinard
et al. (2008), and Bishop et al (2009) parallel
research from neuroscientists and evolutionary
biologists.
  Cory (2006a, 2006b), who appropriately updated the
work of evolutionary neuroscientist MacLean (1990),
has further elaborated the theory of the human
triune brain.
Levine (2006) and Wilson (2006) have further
connected triune brain theory to economic theory
EMPIRICAL TESTING
EMPIRICAL TESTING
 Physical
   Description of Study Area
Blue River/Tuttle Creek Lake watershed of NE and
KS
Watershed Consists of 9,682 square miles, with about
75% of the drainage area located in NE
Tuttle Creek Lake provides flood control, irrigation,
water supply, recreation, fish and wildlife
management, low flow augmentation, and navigation
flow supplementation to the region
EMPIRICAL TESTING
Study area is in the heartland of the USA
 Tuttle Creek Lake is a large reservoir located at the lower end of
the Blue River watershed
 Lake is becoming ever more important as a source of potable water
in northeast Kansas, including Kansas City
 Conflict between upstream farmers (W) and downstream water
users (C) is beginning to emerge
 TUTTLE CREEK DAM
EMPIRICAL TESTING
 Physical
    Description…
Outflow from Tuttle Creek Lake enters the Big Blue
River about nine miles above its confluence with the
Smoky Hill and Republican rivers near Manhattan,
Kansas, USA. At this location, all three rivers join
together to form the Kansas River.
Land use in watershed is primarily agricultural
Topography varies widely
Predominate soil types are silty clay loams
EMPIRICAL TESTING
• Institutional Arrangement in Study Area
– – Historical presumption is that farmers and others
upstream of Tuttle Creek Lake have the right to
allow sediments and chemical to runoff to river and
lake, while downstream users have the duty to accept
substandard water quality
Institutional setup has led to water quality problems
Impaired for siltation, eutrophication, atrazine, and alachlor
• Conservation pool reduced by 30 to 50%
• • Institutional change is on the horizon, responding to
irritation in the region over the quantity and quality
of the water in the Lake
EMPIRICAL TESTING
EMPIRICAL TESTING
WATER SUPPLY FOR LAWRENCE,
KS…
…AND FOR KANSAS CITY (MUCH
LIKE THE NEW YORK CITY
SITUATION)
EMPIRICAL TESTING
• Institutional Arrangement…
– – – Current institutions called into question
Brought on for several reasons: aesthetics, clean
water for recreation, concern for plants and animals
Biggest concern is over potable water quality/
quantity issues
50% of flow from Kansas River directly attributable to
outflow from Tuttle Creek Lake
• Kansas River provides water supplies to Kansas City,
Manhattan, Lawrence, and Topeka, KS.
• Population in area continues to expand
• EMPIRICAL TESTING
 Goal
is to estimate both the standard
microeconomic and metaeconomic derived
demand model for conservation tillage in the
watershed
 Four logit models have been constructed in order
to compare the results provided by
microeconomic and metaeconomic models
EMPIRICAL TESTING
where Ri = the income (as a measure of
financial and capital capacity); Ni = the
physical characteristics of land; IGi = proxy for
self-interest; IMi = proxy for the shared otherinterest; Hi = measure of habitual tendencies;
and Vi = measuring the preference for control.
EMPIRICAL TESTING
 Development
 of Survey Instrument
Survey sent to four county critical area in the region
Area decided upon through use of natural resource
assessment maps and empirical surface water data
 Are includes Gage and Jefferson counties in NE, and
Marshall and Washington counties in KS
 EMPIRICAL TESTING
• Survey Instrument…
– 4191 surveys mailed to individuals on FSA operators
lists
3,731 originally
• 460 non-respondents in subsequent mailing
• – – – Total of 498 usable observations
Measured response rate = 17.1%
Actual response rate is closer to 20-25%
Operator list is not well maintained
• NASS data from 2002 Ag Census shows only 3,184 farms in
four county target area
• Also, several farms operated jointly by families: Would often
send back only one response
• EMPIRICAL TESTING
 Description
 Dependent Variable
  of Variables
no01 is binary 0,1 variable that indicates whether a farmer
uses any amount of conservation tillage
Independent Variables
Income/Financial Capacity
 Collected from survey question that asked respondents to
indicate their gross farm sales, including all conservation
payments
 Soil Slope
 Created with use of GIS data
 Lat/Long points mapped on 30m DEM model
 EMPIRICAL TESTING
• Variables…
– Independent Variables
Other-Interest*Self-Interest
– Three proxies used to measure shared other-interest:
empathy, sympathy, empathy/others
– One proxy used for self-interest: Phares and Erskine
Selfism Scale
• Habit
– Habitual tendencies in relation to conservation tillage
strategies were measured in the four county target area
by asking the following question: Is the percentage of your
farm under conservation tillage/no-till less, the same, or
more than 3 years ago?
• EMPIRICAL TESTING
 Variables…
 Independent Variables
 Self-interest*Control
 Asked respondents to respond to questions that assess
whether he/she perceives having total control when using
conservation tillage strategies
 Provides a proxy for Autonomous vs. Heteronomous
Control (Angyal, 1967)
 Three types of control measured: Farm Control, Other
Control, Nature Control
RESULTS
RESULTS: EMPATHY-ONLY
RESULTS: SYMPATHY-ONLY
RESULTS: EMPATHY-SYMPATHY
CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
 Even
substantial increases in income through
financial incentives may not lead to much
increased use of CT in the region
 An empathy tempered self-interest is a main
driver in the conservation adoption decision
 Preferences for control reinforce self-interest:
Realize that any program that reduces control
will be resisted
 Habit plays a substantive role: Some form of
“irritation” is essential to shift conservation into
consciousness consideration for rational choice
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
 Farmers
are very heterogeneous in self-interest
and other-interest orientations, as well as in
desire for control: Single over-arching
conservation policy and program not likely to be
effective
 Joint policies and programs that can stress both
self-interest (i.e. financial incentives) and otherinterest tendencies (i.e. build community, build
new visions for the Lake) are essential in
enhancing and sustaining usage of conservation
technologies
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
 Specific
Implications for Blue River/Tuttle Creek
Lake Watershed
   Results show that both empathy and sympathy are
present in upstream farmers
This suggests that farmers may be willing to walk-inthe-shoes of those downstream: Similar results for
downstream Lake users would suggesting the
problem could be solved with low transactions costs
in perhaps even a “Coasian*-trade”
Stirring the largely latent empathy-sympathy…
“walking-in-each-others-shoes,” asking “how would I
wish to be treated” leading to a shared vision/ethic…
needs to be a key feature of any approach to bringing
about behavioral change in the watershed-Lake area
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
 Overall
implications for watersheds in other nearby
agricultural areas:
 The
results have provided several new insights into
potential motivators for farmers to utilize conservation
tillage strategies, applicable especially throughout the
midwestern and western Corn Belt region: Especially
important right now, as we move to using agricultural land
to sequester carbon, in the offsets program being proposed
 It is our hope, then, that these results and future research
can help to improve conservation policy and programs,
perhaps even carbon (offsets) policy, especially in this
region
 Such improved policies and programs are essential to
better integration of agriculture with the natural system of
rivers and lakes, moving to more sustainable path 0Z for
the food and natural system
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
 Overall,
all manner of natural resource,
environmental and ecosystem questions:
  Moving to a truly sustainable, resilient business and
industry, economy and community on this spaceshipEarth will take empathy-sympathy: The need to do
so is inherent in the physical reality described in the
thermodynamic laws, and in the true nature of
human nature… we are in this together!
Policy and programs, and education, needs to first
recognize and then emphasize the role of empathy
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
 Regarding
  theory:
Two decades of empirical conservation adoption
research guided by DM theory continues to weather
the conventional NC theory: Empirical results have
unraveled the traditional axioms
New DM economic theory has more clarity, power,
facilitates more generality: Has empirical support for
new axioms
Comments??
Questions????