Cooperation and competition are core issues in various fields, since they are claimed to affect the evolution of human societies and ecological organizations. A long-standing debate has existed on how social behaviors and preferences are shaped with culture. Considering the economic environment as part of culture, this study examines whether the ongoing modernization of competitive societies, called “capitalism,” affects the evolution of people’s social preferences and behaviors. To test this argument, we implemented field experiments of social value orientation and surveys with 1002 respondents for three different areas of Bangladesh: (i) rural, (ii) transitional and (iii) capitalistic societies. The main result reveals that with the evolution from rural to capitalistic societies, people are likely to be less prosocial and more likely to be competitive. In a transitional society, there is a considerable proportion of “unidentified” people, neither proself nor prosocial, implying the potential existence of unstable states during a transformation period from rural to capitalistic societies. We also find that people become more proself with increasing age, education and number of children. These results suggest that important environmental, climate change or sustainability problems, which require cooperation rather than competition, will pose more danger as societies become capitalistic.

Happiness, generativity and social preferences are pivotal factors for the betterment and sustainability of societies. However, little is known about the relationships among happiness, generativity and social preferences, along with sociodemographic factors, within a single analytical framework. We hypothesize that generativity and social preferences are the determinants of happiness, posing a research question “Are people happier by being prosocial and/or generative for sustainability?” We conduct a survey experiment, collecting data from five subjective happiness scales, generativity, social value orientation and sociodemographic variables in one urban area (Dhaka) and two rural areas (Bogra and Gaibandha) in Bangladesh. With the data, we empirically characterize determinants of subjective happiness with a focus on generativity and social value orientation, controlling for sociodemographic factors. The statistical analysis consistently shows a positive association between subjective happiness and generativity, irrespective of the type of happiness scale, while social value orientation does not exhibit any significance. Rural residents have lower peer relative happiness than urban residents, and household income has a positive relationship with general subjective happiness, leading each of these factors to be significant in overall subjective happiness. In summary, generativity, income and residence area are main determinants of happiness, implying that further urbanization, which is expected to occur in the future, will positively affect people’s happiness if it can bring about an increase in generativity. These results also suggest a possibility that people are happier by being more generative for sustainability, and some new institutional framework such as future design shall be recommended to enhance generativity.

Farmers often make farming decisions under risk and uncertainty, and their risk attitudes influence agricultural practices. Their risk attitudes may not be constant at the individual level and might be influenced by information acquisition, a crucial determinant of agricultural decision‐making associated with uncertainties. We study the relationship between farmers' general risk attitudes and information provision by examining the impact of a government‐led soil health information provision programme on their risk attitudes, conducting field experiments and surveys in India. We analyse the collected data using both non‐parametric inferential techniques, such as the Mann‐Whitney and chi‐squared tests, and parametric methods, including probit and negative binomial regressions. The result shows that the soil health information provision influences farmers to be risk‐averse, possibly by enhancing their confidence in combatting land degradation, as it provides additional information and recommendations on soil health and fertiliser usage (dosages and types). We also find that the perception of farmland degradation encourages farmers to take risks, while climate change experiences make them more risk‐averse, suggesting an adaptive shift in their risk attitudes aimed at minimising economic loss. Farmers' risk attitudes significantly influence long‐term sustainability and short‐term economic loss management in agriculture. Our findings suggest that static (e.g., soil health) and dynamic (e.g., farmland degradation with future consequences) information can be leveraged through information provision mechanisms to influence farmers' risk attitudes, helping to balance long‐term sustainability with short‐term economic outcomes in agriculture.