How do social capital and village-level organizational trust affect farmers' climate-related disaster adaptation behavior? Evidence from Hunan Province, China

Understanding farmers' adaptive behavior to climate-related disasters is important in the field of disaster reduction research. The objectives of this study were to analyze how social capital influences farmers' adaptive behavior in the Chinese context and how trust in village-level organizations influences adaptive behavior simultaneously with social capital. We use a logit model to analyze 416 questionnaires collected from Xiangtan City, Hunan Province. The results show that the social network has a negative impact on disaster adaptive behaviors, but the social trust makes farmers more likely to take more adaptive activities. Social norms have little effect on adaptive behavior. Further, we analyze the moderating effects of village-level organizational trust on the relationship. The results show that trust in village-level organizations weakens the negative effects of social networks, but it enhances the positive effects of social trust. This study can help researchers and policy makers understand the complex relationship between social capital, grassroots organizational trust, and adaptive behavior.