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Background and objectives: Applying social learning biases to healthcare decision-making may help explain why some people decide not to adopt health interventions. Traits like market integration and traditionalism can shape social learning biases, particularly in small scale populations with little formal education and distrust of outgroup populations. This study investigates the role of these features on social learning biases across four different health interventions among Himba pastoralists of northern Namibia. Methodology: Using vignettes from 473 participants sampled in 16 communities, we compare three social learning biases (conformity, prestige bias, parochialism) in four novel healthcare interventions. Participants completed a set of questions to estimate traditionalism and market integration. Multilevel models compared the impact of these variables on the probability of adopting the healthcare interventions. Results: Across social learning biases, conformity showed the strongest effect on likelihood of adoption, whereas we found no difference in the prestige bias condition (compared to conformity). More market integrated participants tended to be more likely to adopt interventions, whereas more traditional participants were less likely to adopt when the outgroup advocated adoption or when most of the community didn’t adopt the intervention. Conclusions and implications: These results indicate conformity biases play a strong role in considerations about novel health interventions in indigenous communities, but also that traditional values are instrumental in shaping social learning biases. While previous focus has centered on market integration as a key predictor, we found the degree of traditionalism to be a critical and thus far underappreciated factor in mediating social learning. Lay summaryAdopting novel health interventions often relies on social learning, but we know little about which biases are at play or the mediating factors influencing them. Using a vignette study with Himba pastoralists, this research highlights the importance of conformity, but also that traditionalism is critical in shaping healthcare decisions.
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This content will become publicly available on April 1, 2027
Rethinking Resilience: Lessons from Climate-Smart Innovation in African Agriculture
Abstract Climate Smart Agriculture promises to increase the resilience and productivity of vulnerable agricultural systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the narrow focus on technological adoption rather than on the systematic and uneven distribution of CSA benefits often results in implementation falling short of expectations. This editorial synthesizes the special issue on CSA interventions in five African countries, going beyond conventional narrative accounts of impact to explore critical and unexplored dimensions. Overall, the findings suggest that adoption is a dynamic process, driven by climate shocks and opportunity costs, and not a linear decision-making process. Although CSA may generate macroeconomic benefits, the benefits are often reaped by wealthier, urban actors, which exacerbates rural inequality. Importantly, the performance of technologies is highly contextual and success depends on complementary investment and institutional support. Studies also show that joint decision-making between spouses within the household leads to better results and that pastoral systems require integrated, socially embedded interventions. We argue that an effective CSA cannot be a one-size-fits-all technical solution. Instead, it must be re-framed as a transformative process centered on equity, collaborative institutions, and pluralistic methodologies that co-produce knowledge with farmers.
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- PAR ID:
- 10689315
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Pennsylvania State University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Development Perspectives
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 1-2
- ISSN:
- 2375-0456
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 7
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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