S15 - Session P4 - Understanding the process of pesticide regulations, a cognitive and behavioral perspective

Authors: Laurent Parrot *, Chloé Faure

Understanding the process of economic change is a major research field in neo-institutional economics. A door has been left ajar with the work of Douglass North, Nobel prize in economics in 1993, when he suggested that understanding the process of economic change consists basically in understanding the sources of human decision making. We suggest that methodological individualism and cognitive and behavioral sciences provide a framework to understand the processes of economic policies. Methodological individualism states that subjective individual motivation explains social phenomena. Cognitive and behavioral sciences state that a permanently interacting cognitive triad affects human behavior : cognitions, behavior and emotions. Therefore, we suggest that understanding how the components of the cognitive triad interact with each other can explain not only human decision making, but also institutional change. We apply these methods to the history of pesticide regulations since 1945 in Europe. We will provide a time frame of the different major pesticide regulations, several key events, and the general historical context over time. We then analyze the major turning points in pesticide regulation from a cognitive triad perspective and dynamics. Pesticide regulation evolved with a major cognitive switch from food security to environmental protection. Pesticide regulations gave substance to the behavioral requirements induced by the cognitive switch. Emotions, through dissonance, served as a major factor for change as they drove the gradual cognitive switch. Cognitions, behavior and emotions interacted permanently and moved from one temporary equilibrium to another. The process of change of public policies can therefore be a matter of understanding the processes underlyning the cognitive triad in human decision making. This approach offers challenging inter disciplinary opportunities and renews the ways we interview stakeholders.