Turning thinking to action: unpacking peer effect on bridging the intention-behavior gaps in rice engineering water-saving technology adoption

Rice cultivation faces increasing freshwater scarcity, necessitating effective water-saving technologies to reconcile food security with sustainable resource use. While peer effects are recognized as influential in farmers’ decisions, their role in shaping the adoption of engineering-based water-saving technologies remains underexplored, particularly regarding the theoretical mechanisms bridging the intention-behavior gap and the broader economic implications for sustainable irrigation. Using data of 1,209 rice farmers in northeast China, this study empirically analyzes the role of peer effect in bridging intention-behavior gap in rice engineering water-saving technology adoption. The results show that compared with the no gap farmers, peer effect can effectively promote the positive intention-behavior gap of engineering water-saving technology adoption. Particularly, promoting effect of conformity effect is greater than that of normative effect. The mechanism analysis of social trust verifies that compared to interpersonal trust, institutional trust is the main transmission pathway between peer effect and intention-behavior gap. The moderating effect analysis from the government regulation perspective reveals that both institutional incentives and emotional incentives positively moderate the impact, with institutional incentives demonstrating stronger moderating effects. Instrumental incentives positively moderate negative gap, while water pricing constraints exclusively enhance positive gap. Heterogeneity analysis shows that peer effect has a more significant impact on farmers with medium risk. Overall, the findings highlight the potential for achieving sustainable goals through peer effects in water-saving behavior incentives and help inform policy makers in designing technology promotion strategies.