Popular in Economics

Banks and Policy Organisations

Macroeconomic modelling of CBDC: a critical review

European Central Bank Ulrich Bindseil

Banks and Policy Organisations

Financing Private Credit

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Nina Boyarchenko

Economics

Failing Banks

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Emil Verner

Economic History

Golden Fetters

UC Berkeley Barry Eichengreen

Economic Inequalities

Visions of Inequality

City University of New York Branko Milanovic

Economics

School Finance Equalization Increases Intergenerational Mobility

Yale University Barbara Biasi

Economics

Olivier Blanchard on U.S. Pandemic-Era Inflation

Peterson Institute for International Economics Olivier Blanchard

A Family of Norms: Related Beliefs about Female Labor Force Participation

View more insights in Social Sciences - Uncategorized - Economics - Behavioral economics

View more figures from University of Technology Sydney

View the page of Elif Incekara Hafalir

Read the Study

Next in Behavioral economics

Strategy-Proof Multi-Issue Mediation: An Application to Online Dispute Resolution

Onur Kesten | University of Sydney

Self- versus social image in warm-glow giving

Jonathan Levy | University of Sydney

Elif Incekara Hafalir explores how correcting misperceptions about societal support for women working outside the home influences other related beliefs

Image courtesy of interviewee. October 8, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

The study discusses how correcting misperceptions of social norms can impact beliefs related to closely associated norms, particularly in the context of female labor force participation. Social norms are influential in shaping behaviors, often leading individuals to conform even against their preferences to avoid social costs. Positive social norms are crucial for achieving desired outcomes, such as increasing women’s participation in the workforce.

The research highlights that sometimes, barriers to these outcomes might stem not from negative social norms but from underestimating existing positive norms—that is, people may believe that societal support for women's work outside the home is weaker than it actually is. Correcting these misperceptions offers a potential "low-hanging fruit" for policymakers since changing entrenched negative norms can be challenging.

The authors propose an "information treatment" approach, where providing accurate information about societal attitudes can improve related beliefs and outcomes. The study aims to investigate whether correcting misperceptions about one specific norm can also lead to changes in related norms, examining the concept of spillover effects.

Using a randomized control trial with Saudi male and female university students, the study found that despite promising approaches, the correction of misperceptions led to unexpected negative beliefs about other norms, such as those related to the potential impact of mothers working on family life. This video discovering suggests that when addressing one norm, individuals may reassess other related beliefs in ways that do not align with expectations, possibly due to cognitive dissonance or self-serving belief distortion.

The implications of this research suggest that it is crucial for researchers and policymakers to understand not only how to change perceptions of one specific norm but also how those changes may inadvertently affect related beliefs and norms, emphasizing the importance of further investigation into these complex relationships.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Impact of Social Norms on Behavior**: Social norms significantly influence individual behavior, often compelling people to act in accordance with societal expectations even when they may not have personal preferences to do so. This underscores the importance of correcting misperceptions about these norms to achieve desired behavioral outcomes.

2. **Misperception of Positive Norms**: The study highlights that sometimes negative social outcomes are not due to harmful norms but rather the misperception of positive norms. For example, women may choose not to participate in the workforce because they underestimate societal support for working outside the home.

3. **Information Treatments as a Solution**: Providing accurate information to correct misperceptions about social norms can effectively improve behaviors and outcomes. This has been demonstrated in past studies, which inform the current research's approach of using "information provision" to raise awareness about supportive norms for female labor participation.

4. **Exploration of Spillover Effects**: The research seeks to understand how correcting misperceptions about one norm can influence related beliefs and behaviors. It examines whether addressing one specific misperceived norm can lead to positive or negative spillover effects on other norms related to female labor participation.

5. **Surprising Outcomes and Mechanisms**: The study uncovered surprising negative spillover effects, where correcting beliefs about support for female workforce participation led to increased concerns about the negative impact on children when mothers work. This deviation is linked to psychological mechanisms such as cognitive dissonance and self-serving belief distortion, suggesting that individuals might adjust their beliefs in response to maintain consistency in the face of new information.

Export as PDF
Here are some key quotes from the video that capture the main ideas:

1. **Social Norms' Power**: "Social norms are very powerful and affect behavior... they may just behave that way in order not to defy these social norms."

2. **Social Cost of Defying Norms**: "Because if you defy the norms, there is going to be some social cost."

3. **Importance of Positive Norms**: "It is important to have positive social norms in order to achieve desired outcomes."

4. **Misperceptions of Norms**: "Sometimes it is not the negative social norms preventing the desired outcomes, but the misperception or underestimation of positive norms."

5. **Information Treatment**: "We just need to correct underestimation of the positive norms... this type of information treatment has been done in the literature in many different convideos."

6. **Spillover Effects**: "We are investigating... if we correct one of the misperceived norms, what is gonna happen to the others? Is there going to be spillover effects?"

7. **Observations on Perceptions**: "We found... misperception, we wanted to collect this misperception."

8. **Negative Spillover Effects**: "This positive information we found have backfired... the treatment subjects started to believe that a larger share of others think that children will suffer when mother works."

9. **Meta Beliefs**: "People have these overarching beliefs... this meta belief is influenced by a variety of sub-norms."

10. **Cognitive Dissonance Theory**: "Individuals may change their beliefs or find justifications for inconsistencies... to reduce this discomfort, they may revise their closely related beliefs in the negative direction."

11. **Self-Serving Belief Distortion**: "People selectively interpret information in order to hold on to beliefs that will make future look bright."

12. **Impact of Correcting Misperceptions**: "Correcting misperceptions may affect not only the outcomes, but also closely related beliefs."

These quotes summarize the study's focus on social norms, the impact of correcting misconceptions regarding norms, and highlight the complexities involved in changing beliefs around social patterns, particularly in the convideo of female labor force participation.

Export as PDF
Here are several articles that share similarities with the topic discussed in your video regarding social norms, misperceptions, and their effects on behavior, particularly in the convideo of female labor force participation:

1. **"The Role of Social Norms in Gender Inequality: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Pakistan"** - This article examines how social norms influence women's labor force participation in Pakistan and discusses interventions aimed at changing perceptions and behaviors related to gender roles.

2. **"Perceptions of Social Norms and Women's Labor Market Participation: Evidence from a Field Experiment"** - This study investigates the impact of correcting misperceptions about gender norms on the labor market outcomes for women, similar to your focus on misperceived norms and their correction.

3. **"Changing Perceptions: The Effect of Social Norms on Women's Labor Market Outcomes in the Middle East"** - This research highlights how societal beliefs and norms shape women's employment opportunities in the Middle East and explores strategies to shift these norms.

4. **"Social Norms and Economic Decisions: Labor Force Participation of Women in Conservative Societies"** - An exploration of how economic behaviors, like labor force participation, are influenced by entrenched social norms in conservative cultures, with implications for policy changes.

5. **"The Spillover Effects of Information on Gender Norms: Evidence from Informational Interventions"** - This article discusses how interventions designed to provide information about gender norms can have unintended spillover effects on related beliefs, similar to your findings about the backfiring of interventions.

6. **"Cognitive Dissonance and Social Change: Understanding Resistance to Gender Norms"** - This paper examines the psychological mechanisms, including cognitive dissonance, that affect people’s responses to information aimed at changing gender norms.

7. **"Misperceived Norms and Women's Workforce Participation: Evidence from the Gulf Region"** - This study details the misperceptions surrounding gender norms in the Gulf region and their consequences for women’s participation in the labor market.

These articles cover various aspects of social norms, their correction, and the implications for female labor force participation, resonating with the themes presented in your video.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:90000

1
00:00:00.065 --> 00:00:02.085
In our study, we aim to understand

2
00:00:02.185 --> 00:00:03.805
how correcting misperceptions

3
00:00:03.865 --> 00:00:06.965
of social norms can affect beliefs about,

4
00:00:06.965 --> 00:00:08.245
closely related norms.

5
00:00:08.705 --> 00:00:11.965
So it is well known that social norms are very powerful,

6
00:00:12.445 --> 00:00:14.325
powerful and affect, behavior.

7
00:00:14.985 --> 00:00:18.925
Uh, so they are so powerful that sometimes people, I mean,

8
00:00:18.955 --> 00:00:22.805
even if they do not have preferences, personal preferences

9
00:00:23.345 --> 00:00:27.965
to behave certain way, a certain way, they may just,

10
00:00:28.185 --> 00:00:31.885
behave that way in order not to defy these social norms.

11
00:00:31.885 --> 00:00:34.845
For example, sometimes people, I mean,

12
00:00:34.875 --> 00:00:38.405
they may wanna lie in order to gain some monetary,

13
00:00:38.845 --> 00:00:40.045
monetary gain, let's say.

14
00:00:40.345 --> 00:00:44.205
But because it is social norm, not to lie, they may not lie,

15
00:00:44.385 --> 00:00:46.845
or they, they don't care about littering.

16
00:00:46.845 --> 00:00:49.645
They don't, they don't care about recycling,

17
00:00:49.785 --> 00:00:53.005
but they end up recycling and then they end up not littering

18
00:00:53.005 --> 00:00:55.365
because it is social norm to, I mean,

19
00:00:55.385 --> 00:00:56.405
to do those things, right?

20
00:00:56.605 --> 00:00:59.165
Because they don't wanna defy the norms,

21
00:00:59.165 --> 00:01:01.845
because if you defy the norms, there is going

22
00:01:01.845 --> 00:01:03.005
to be some social cost.

23
00:01:03.585 --> 00:01:07.565
So we know these social norms are very powerful as a result,

24
00:01:08.025 --> 00:01:10.805
it is important to have positive social norms in order

25
00:01:10.805 --> 00:01:12.485
to achieve desired outcomes.

26
00:01:12.695 --> 00:01:15.565
Let's say that we are interested in female labor force

27
00:01:15.965 --> 00:01:18.605
participation, increasing female labor force participation

28
00:01:19.145 --> 00:01:21.525
in a country with a very low,

29
00:01:21.805 --> 00:01:24.205
I mean workforce participation by women, right?

30
00:01:24.355 --> 00:01:25.405
Such as Saudi Arabia.

31
00:01:26.305 --> 00:01:30.045
If the norms in the environment are not positive for females

32
00:01:30.045 --> 00:01:33.365
to work outside of form, even women,

33
00:01:33.795 --> 00:01:37.365
even if women do want to work, they may end up not working

34
00:01:37.365 --> 00:01:39.845
because they don't wanna defy these social norms.

35
00:01:40.385 --> 00:01:44.165
So this is, if this is the case, it is a hard problem

36
00:01:44.385 --> 00:01:47.725
to solve because it is not easy to change social norms.

37
00:01:47.725 --> 00:01:51.245
These social norms develop in a long period of time.

38
00:01:52.385 --> 00:01:57.325
But however, sometimes it is not the negative social norms,

39
00:01:57.985 --> 00:02:02.245
preventing the desired outcomes, but the misperception

40
00:02:02.505 --> 00:02:06.125
or underestimation of positive norms, for example,

41
00:02:06.425 --> 00:02:11.125
in the environment, maybe everyone is okay for women

42
00:02:11.145 --> 00:02:12.525
to work outside of home,

43
00:02:13.345 --> 00:02:17.125
but somehow people are underestimating this positive norm,

44
00:02:17.225 --> 00:02:19.125
and they think that it is not okay.

45
00:02:19.285 --> 00:02:21.685
I mean, they think that the society thinks

46
00:02:21.955 --> 00:02:24.885
that it is not okay for women to work outside of home.

47
00:02:25.545 --> 00:02:29.645
So this is a, the misperception in this direction

48
00:02:30.265 --> 00:02:33.045
is a low hanging fruit for policymakers

49
00:02:33.345 --> 00:02:35.685
and practitioners, researchers,

50
00:02:35.685 --> 00:02:38.525
because we don't need to change the norms.

51
00:02:38.545 --> 00:02:40.285
The norms are already positive.

52
00:02:40.585 --> 00:02:43.125
We just need to correct underestimation

53
00:02:43.125 --> 00:02:44.205
of the positive norms.

54
00:02:44.825 --> 00:02:49.685
So, this type of in, so I mean,

55
00:02:49.825 --> 00:02:53.125
if you correct these, misperceived notes, I mean,

56
00:02:53.125 --> 00:02:55.245
how do you, how do you correct these misperceptions?

57
00:02:55.305 --> 00:02:57.005
How do you correct these underestimations?

58
00:02:57.465 --> 00:03:00.765
You can give information about, I mean, what is the, what,

59
00:03:00.765 --> 00:03:01.885
what the correct norm is?

60
00:03:01.945 --> 00:03:04.205
For example, you can tell them you think

61
00:03:04.205 --> 00:03:06.805
that actually society does not support for women

62
00:03:06.825 --> 00:03:08.045
to work outside of home.

63
00:03:08.885 --> 00:03:12.085
Actually, most of the people think that it is okay for women

64
00:03:12.105 --> 00:03:13.485
to work outside of home, right?

65
00:03:13.745 --> 00:03:16.245
So this is a very simple information treatment.

66
00:03:16.305 --> 00:03:17.925
We call it information treatment,

67
00:03:17.955 --> 00:03:19.525
information provision, right?

68
00:03:19.955 --> 00:03:23.565
This type of information provision treatment has been done

69
00:03:23.625 --> 00:03:25.445
in the literature in many different

70
00:03:25.565 --> 00:03:27.485
contexts, context.

71
00:03:27.825 --> 00:03:30.285
And, it has been shown that

72
00:03:30.825 --> 00:03:32.845
the outcomes might be improved,

73
00:03:32.865 --> 00:03:35.685
female labor force participation might be improved,

74
00:03:36.425 --> 00:03:39.205
and the, whatever the desired outcome is,

75
00:03:39.545 --> 00:03:40.565
it might be improved

76
00:03:40.785 --> 00:03:42.845
by just using this information treatments.

77
00:03:42.945 --> 00:03:47.035
If there are misperceptions in our study,

78
00:03:47.735 --> 00:03:51.035
unlike these previous studies, we are focusing on

79
00:03:51.135 --> 00:03:55.155
how collecting misperceptions about one specific norm

80
00:03:55.735 --> 00:03:59.595
can affect closely related norms rather than just

81
00:03:59.595 --> 00:04:00.835
looking at the outcomes.

82
00:04:01.305 --> 00:04:04.795
This is important because there might be multiple norms,

83
00:04:05.435 --> 00:04:08.315
multiple norms influencing the behavior we are trying

84
00:04:08.335 --> 00:04:09.675
to improve, let's say

85
00:04:09.675 --> 00:04:11.395
that we wanna improve the female labor

86
00:04:11.395 --> 00:04:12.795
force participation, right?

87
00:04:13.095 --> 00:04:16.595
But there is not only one norm affecting this outcome.

88
00:04:16.995 --> 00:04:20.315
I mean, one norm might be whether it's acceptable for women

89
00:04:20.375 --> 00:04:21.635
to work outside of home.

90
00:04:22.185 --> 00:04:24.835
Another norm might be whether family, life

91
00:04:24.975 --> 00:04:27.315
and children will suffer when mother works

92
00:04:27.315 --> 00:04:28.635
outside, outside of home.

93
00:04:28.775 --> 00:04:32.915
It looks like there are, I mean, multiple, norms,

94
00:04:33.395 --> 00:04:37.555
multiple subie feeding into this meta belief about whether

95
00:04:37.645 --> 00:04:40.115
women should be participating in the workforce.

96
00:04:40.375 --> 00:04:44.275
If there are multiple norms, if I correct one of them only,

97
00:04:45.585 --> 00:04:47.745
I don't know what is gonna happen to the other norms.

98
00:04:47.745 --> 00:04:50.145
So that is what we are investigating.

99
00:04:50.325 --> 00:04:53.785
We are asking if we correct one of the misperceived norms,

100
00:04:54.095 --> 00:04:55.625
what is gonna happen to the others?

101
00:04:55.885 --> 00:04:57.745
Is there going to be spillover effects?

102
00:04:57.855 --> 00:04:59.665
That is what we are doing in this paper.

103
00:05:00.155 --> 00:05:01.185
There are lots

104
00:05:01.185 --> 00:05:04.825
of papers about factors affecting female labor force

105
00:05:05.225 --> 00:05:07.825
participation among, among them,

106
00:05:07.885 --> 00:05:11.505
the social norms have been explored, explored

107
00:05:11.565 --> 00:05:13.865
by previous, researchers recently.

108
00:05:14.525 --> 00:05:17.945
Uh, Christina Bihi has lots of, lots of papers

109
00:05:18.595 --> 00:05:19.785
discussing the effect

110
00:05:19.785 --> 00:05:22.145
of social norms in shaping individual

111
00:05:22.545 --> 00:05:23.945
behavior and decision making.

112
00:05:24.645 --> 00:05:28.065
But in addition to the literature on social norms,

113
00:05:28.465 --> 00:05:29.985
recently researchers started

114
00:05:30.085 --> 00:05:33.265
to become interested in misperception of social norms.

115
00:05:33.885 --> 00:05:36.785
In fact, there is this review article by Burstein

116
00:05:36.785 --> 00:05:39.345
and Yang, Burstein and Yang 2022.

117
00:05:40.705 --> 00:05:44.195
They look at all these papers, research studies,

118
00:05:44.665 --> 00:05:46.675
looking at the misperceptions

119
00:05:46.935 --> 00:05:49.595
and looking at the correction of these misperceptions

120
00:05:49.695 --> 00:05:51.435
and how they affect the outcomes.

121
00:05:51.995 --> 00:05:55.155
I think that paper is going to be really useful for someone

122
00:05:55.255 --> 00:05:58.445
who is interested in misperceptions correction of correction

123
00:05:58.445 --> 00:06:01.285
of misperceptions and their effects on outcomes.

124
00:06:01.585 --> 00:06:03.405
Our paper is closely related

125
00:06:03.545 --> 00:06:07.005
to is Stein At all 20 20, 20 20 paper,

126
00:06:07.635 --> 00:06:10.205
they survey Saudi med males about

127
00:06:10.205 --> 00:06:12.805
what they think about women working outside of home.

128
00:06:13.305 --> 00:06:17.405
So they find that Saudi men are fine for work, fine

129
00:06:17.465 --> 00:06:19.445
for women to work outside of home,

130
00:06:19.705 --> 00:06:23.045
but they are underestimating the opinions of others.

131
00:06:23.405 --> 00:06:25.325
I mean, marriot, Saudi men.

132
00:06:25.745 --> 00:06:27.885
As a result, they are underestimating

133
00:06:27.905 --> 00:06:29.125
the positive social norm.

134
00:06:29.465 --> 00:06:33.845
So when they tell this man that actually most of the people

135
00:06:33.985 --> 00:06:37.485
around you are supportive for women to work outside of home,

136
00:06:38.075 --> 00:06:42.525
they find that the outcomes for the wives of these Saudi men

137
00:06:43.075 --> 00:06:44.925
increased in the labor market.

138
00:06:45.645 --> 00:06:48.325
I mean, these, their wives started to apply

139
00:06:48.385 --> 00:06:52.245
for jobs more, started to have more interviews and so on.

140
00:06:52.465 --> 00:06:56.205
So they find there's a positive effect of these, I mean,

141
00:06:56.205 --> 00:06:58.605
information treatments on outcomes.

142
00:06:59.425 --> 00:07:01.165
So unlike these studies

143
00:07:01.995 --> 00:07:05.285
that primarily focus on correcting misperception

144
00:07:05.825 --> 00:07:07.165
of one single norm

145
00:07:07.505 --> 00:07:09.885
and its effects on desired outcomes,

146
00:07:10.785 --> 00:07:13.685
our study examines the spillover effects

147
00:07:13.745 --> 00:07:17.765
of information treatments, on related beliefs.

148
00:07:18.105 --> 00:07:21.045
So we are not only interested in outcomes,

149
00:07:21.185 --> 00:07:24.005
we are interested in how the related,

150
00:07:24.035 --> 00:07:26.005
closely related beliefs are affected

151
00:07:26.145 --> 00:07:29.085
by the information treatments, which aim

152
00:07:29.185 --> 00:07:30.885
to correct some misperceptions.

153
00:07:31.465 --> 00:07:33.085
So that paper was,

154
00:07:33.515 --> 00:07:36.525
they had participants were Saudi Marriot males.

155
00:07:36.905 --> 00:07:40.925
In our study, we surveyed, Saudi male

156
00:07:41.025 --> 00:07:44.525
and female university students from a large public

157
00:07:44.575 --> 00:07:46.285
university in Saudi Arabia.

158
00:07:46.945 --> 00:07:50.885
So we conducted an online survey study with three waves,

159
00:07:51.505 --> 00:07:52.805
and in every way,

160
00:07:52.945 --> 00:07:56.285
we asked our participants their personal beliefs

161
00:07:56.425 --> 00:07:58.925
and their perception of norms related

162
00:07:58.985 --> 00:08:01.125
to female labor force participation.

163
00:08:01.585 --> 00:08:04.365
For example, we ask them whether, I mean,

164
00:08:04.365 --> 00:08:07.685
they think it's okay for women to work outside of home,

165
00:08:08.105 --> 00:08:11.125
but we did not only ask that question, remember

166
00:08:11.125 --> 00:08:13.525
that there are multiple norms affecting female

167
00:08:13.575 --> 00:08:14.805
labor participation.

168
00:08:15.185 --> 00:08:18.125
We did not only ask about the norm,

169
00:08:18.395 --> 00:08:20.645
regarding women working outside of home,

170
00:08:20.945 --> 00:08:24.245
but we also asked them whether they believe family, life

171
00:08:24.345 --> 00:08:26.885
and children will suffer if Mother works,

172
00:08:27.385 --> 00:08:30.405
and what their perception of, perception

173
00:08:30.405 --> 00:08:34.925
of the society's, beliefs about this.

174
00:08:34.945 --> 00:08:36.085
Uh, the, the same thing.

175
00:08:36.865 --> 00:08:40.285
Um, so we, we ask participant to guess,

176
00:08:40.285 --> 00:08:43.725
what others think, on these same questions.

177
00:08:44.225 --> 00:08:47.685
We ask these same questions in every wave in order

178
00:08:47.785 --> 00:08:50.925
to understand whether what we measured is consistent,

179
00:08:51.425 --> 00:08:52.565
o over time.

180
00:08:53.545 --> 00:08:54.765
And in the first

181
00:08:54.985 --> 00:08:59.285
Two waves, we found that, the norms

182
00:08:59.545 --> 00:09:03.205
for women to work outside of home is positive.

183
00:09:03.565 --> 00:09:06.005
Everyone thinks that women should be allowed to work outside

184
00:09:06.005 --> 00:09:09.405
of home, however, they are severe underestimated.

185
00:09:09.755 --> 00:09:13.005
Once we found this misperception, we wanted

186
00:09:13.065 --> 00:09:16.405
to collect this misperception in the third wave,

187
00:09:17.465 --> 00:09:20.005
and we collected this misperception by run,

188
00:09:20.005 --> 00:09:22.085
running a randomized control trial.

189
00:09:22.675 --> 00:09:26.685
What we did was for half of the random selected subjects,

190
00:09:27.065 --> 00:09:28.445
they were in the treatment group.

191
00:09:28.545 --> 00:09:31.045
The other half we were in the control group.

192
00:09:31.665 --> 00:09:35.085
In the treatment group, we told them what is the, I mean,

193
00:09:35.235 --> 00:09:38.325
real support for women to work outside of home

194
00:09:38.745 --> 00:09:39.925
and in the control group,

195
00:09:39.925 --> 00:09:41.885
they did not receive any information.

196
00:09:42.425 --> 00:09:44.925
And then we compare these two groups in terms

197
00:09:44.945 --> 00:09:48.925
of their related beliefs on other questions, such as

198
00:09:50.285 --> 00:09:53.445
children, whether children will suffer when mother works,

199
00:09:53.445 --> 00:09:56.005
because we are interested in spillover effects

200
00:09:56.105 --> 00:09:57.205
on related beliefs.

201
00:09:57.385 --> 00:10:00.125
We found that the information, the, with the positive,

202
00:10:00.485 --> 00:10:03.085
remember we are giving them a positive information

203
00:10:03.585 --> 00:10:05.885
for vma female labor participation, right?

204
00:10:06.385 --> 00:10:10.325
But this positive information we found have backfired,

205
00:10:10.745 --> 00:10:13.605
and the treatment subjects started to believe

206
00:10:13.605 --> 00:10:16.325
that a larger share of others think

207
00:10:16.395 --> 00:10:19.565
that children will suffer when mother works.

208
00:10:20.265 --> 00:10:25.125
So this was kind of, I mean, surprising for us,

209
00:10:25.275 --> 00:10:27.365
because you may think that may,

210
00:10:27.365 --> 00:10:29.525
there may be some positive spill over effect.

211
00:10:29.525 --> 00:10:32.285
Maybe their beliefs will improve in every domain,

212
00:10:32.705 --> 00:10:35.445
but we find the, I mean, negative effect.

213
00:10:36.185 --> 00:10:40.725
So, what might be the possible, mechanisms is that,

214
00:10:41.545 --> 00:10:44.565
so people have these overarching beliefs.

215
00:10:44.945 --> 00:10:47.165
We can call it meta beliefs, if you like,

216
00:10:47.615 --> 00:10:49.565
about female labor participation.

217
00:10:49.705 --> 00:10:53.005
And this meta belief is influenced by a variety

218
00:10:53.145 --> 00:10:54.445
of subie, right?

219
00:10:55.265 --> 00:10:58.405
One, one subie might be whether women should be

220
00:10:58.405 --> 00:10:59.605
working outside of home.

221
00:10:59.955 --> 00:11:04.125
Another subie might be whether children will suffer or not.

222
00:11:04.235 --> 00:11:07.165
When mother works, there are multiple subie feeding

223
00:11:07.235 --> 00:11:08.525
into the meta belief, right?

224
00:11:09.425 --> 00:11:13.125
So the existence, the existence of these,

225
00:11:13.525 --> 00:11:18.485
multiple subie subie creates a room for individuals

226
00:11:18.545 --> 00:11:21.885
to interpret n information in different ways.

227
00:11:22.515 --> 00:11:25.365
This interpretation process can be understood

228
00:11:25.365 --> 00:11:27.965
through the lens of cognitive dizziness theory

229
00:11:28.505 --> 00:11:30.725
and the self-serving belief distortion.

230
00:11:30.995 --> 00:11:32.765
Cognitive dissonance theory says

231
00:11:32.765 --> 00:11:36.405
that people experience psychological discomfort when,

232
00:11:36.555 --> 00:11:38.725
when they hold conflicting beliefs

233
00:11:39.105 --> 00:11:42.205
or when there's an information contradicting

234
00:11:42.245 --> 00:11:44.005
their existing beliefs, right?

235
00:11:44.545 --> 00:11:47.685
So, this, in order to reduce this discomfort,

236
00:11:47.795 --> 00:11:49.645
individuals may change their beliefs

237
00:11:49.745 --> 00:11:52.765
or find justifications for inconsistencies.

238
00:11:53.425 --> 00:11:56.845
For example, a person underestimating societal support

239
00:11:56.865 --> 00:11:58.765
for women working outside of home.

240
00:11:59.115 --> 00:12:02.325
When they receive this positive information, they start

241
00:12:02.325 --> 00:12:04.085
to feel this cognitive dissonance.

242
00:12:04.505 --> 00:12:08.805
In order to reduce this discomfort, they may revise their,

243
00:12:09.345 --> 00:12:13.405
closely related beliefs in the negative direction so

244
00:12:13.405 --> 00:12:15.125
that everything is going to make sense.

245
00:12:15.225 --> 00:12:17.605
So this is one explanation, one mechanism.

246
00:12:17.785 --> 00:12:21.365
It may be the other is self-serving belief distortion,

247
00:12:21.365 --> 00:12:23.445
what we call self-serving belief distortion.

248
00:12:24.105 --> 00:12:26.725
Um, it suggests that people selectively

249
00:12:27.395 --> 00:12:31.405
interpret information in order to hold on to beliefs

250
00:12:31.715 --> 00:12:33.565
that will make future look bright.

251
00:12:34.065 --> 00:12:37.485
For example, think about a young Saudi,

252
00:12:37.555 --> 00:12:42.325
male university student, who wants to hold on to belief

253
00:12:42.355 --> 00:12:45.245
that women entering the workforce is not gonna create

254
00:12:45.245 --> 00:12:46.725
additional competition,

255
00:12:47.185 --> 00:12:50.845
or it is not going to disrupt traditional gender roles

256
00:12:51.515 --> 00:12:54.765
despite this new information we are giving to them, right?

257
00:12:55.305 --> 00:13:00.045
To maintain this comforting belief, they may update another

258
00:13:00.615 --> 00:13:03.005
subie in the negative direction so

259
00:13:03.005 --> 00:13:05.605
that they can hold onto discomforting belief

260
00:13:05.605 --> 00:13:08.605
that the labor market is not going to be, I mean,

261
00:13:08.635 --> 00:13:10.005
competitive that much.

262
00:13:10.425 --> 00:13:13.725
So that might be another mechanism, for this finding.

263
00:13:14.465 --> 00:13:16.885
One thing we can say from this research is

264
00:13:16.885 --> 00:13:19.165
that correcting misperceptions

265
00:13:20.305 --> 00:13:22.245
may affect not only the outcomes,

266
00:13:22.425 --> 00:13:24.765
but also closely related beliefs.

267
00:13:25.355 --> 00:13:29.485
This is very important for researchers to, I mean,

268
00:13:29.785 --> 00:13:31.045
to pay attention to,

269
00:13:31.315 --> 00:13:35.645
because remember, we wanna increase the desired outcomes.

270
00:13:36.505 --> 00:13:40.645
One way to do that, to correct these underestimation

271
00:13:40.905 --> 00:13:42.645
of positive social norms.

272
00:13:42.645 --> 00:13:45.685
That is what all the research studies have been

273
00:13:45.685 --> 00:13:46.925
doing before, right?

274
00:13:47.825 --> 00:13:52.445
But when we correct one misperception on a specific norm,

275
00:13:53.025 --> 00:13:54.525
we don't know what is gonna happen

276
00:13:54.825 --> 00:13:58.365
to another closely related norm, which is also important

277
00:13:58.585 --> 00:14:00.885
for the, for the desired outcome.

278
00:14:00.905 --> 00:14:03.325
In our case, we may labor participation.

279
00:14:04.125 --> 00:14:07.405
I think researchers will, should pay attention to these,

280
00:14:07.435 --> 00:14:10.405
spillover effects, investigate them more,

281
00:14:10.865 --> 00:14:14.165
and also it'll be fruitful, to investigate.

282
00:14:14.275 --> 00:14:17.685
Okay? Uh, these, I mean the mechanisms, closely.

283
00:14:18.145 --> 00:14:21.405
Why, why do we have these spillover effects?

284
00:14:21.475 --> 00:14:23.525
What are the mechanisms? Can we test?

285
00:14:23.625 --> 00:14:26.925
Can we disentangle different, possible mechanisms?

Impact of Correcting Misperceptions on Social Norms

00:00:00 - In our study, we aim to understand how correcting misperceptions of social norms can affect beliefs about, closely related norms. So it is well known that social norms are very powerful, powerful and affect, behavior. so they are so powerful that sometimes people, I mean, even if they do not have preferences, personal preferences to behave certain way, a certain way, they may just, behave that way in order not to defy these social norms.

00:00:34 - they may wanna lie in order to gain some monetary, monetary gain, let's say. But because it is social norm, not to lie, they may not lie, or they, they don't care about littering. They don't, they don't care about recycling, but they end up recycling and then they end up not littering because it is social norm to, I mean, to do those things, right? Because they don't wanna defy the norms, because if you defy the norms, there is going to be some social cost.

00:01:08 - it is important to have positive social norms in order to achieve desired outcomes. Let's say that we are interested in female labor force participation, increasing female labor force participation in a country with a very low, I mean workforce participation by women, right? Such as Saudi Arabia. If the norms in the environment are not positive for females to work outside of form, even women,

Addressing Misperceptions of Positive Social Norms

00:01:37 - because they don't wanna defy these social norms. So this is, if this is the case, it is a hard problem to solve because it is not easy to change social norms. These social norms develop in a long period of time. But however, sometimes it is not the negative social norms, preventing the desired outcomes, but the misperception or underestimation of positive norms, for example,

00:02:11 - to work outside of home, but somehow people are underestimating this positive norm, and they think that it is not okay. I mean, they think that the society thinks that it is not okay for women to work outside of home. So this is a, the misperception in this direction is a low hanging fruit for policymakers and practitioners, researchers, because we don't need to change the norms.

00:02:40 - We just need to correct underestimation of the positive norms. So, this type of in, so I mean, if you correct these, misperceived notes, I mean, how do you, how do you correct these misperceptions? How do you correct these underestimations? You can give information about, I mean, what is the, what, what the correct norm is? For example, you can tell them you think that actually society does not support for women to work outside of home.

Impact of Information Treatment on Social Norms and Female Labor Participation

00:03:12 - to work outside of home, right? So this is a very simple information treatment. We call it information treatment, information provision, right? This type of information provision treatment has been done in the literature in many different contexts, context. And, it has been shown that the outcomes might be improved, female labor force participation might be improved, and the, whatever the desired outcome is,

00:03:40 - by just using this information treatments. If there are misperceptions in our study, unlike these previous studies, we are focusing on how collecting misperceptions about one specific norm can affect closely related norms rather than just looking at the outcomes. This is important because there might be multiple norms, multiple norms influencing the behavior we are trying to improve, let's say

00:04:11 - force participation, right? But there is not only one norm affecting this outcome. I mean, one norm might be whether it's acceptable for women to work outside of home. Another norm might be whether family, life and children will suffer when mother works outside, outside of home. It looks like there are, I mean, multiple, norms, multiple subie feeding into this meta belief about whether women should be participating in the workforce.

Investigating Spillover Effects of Correcting Misperceived Social Norms

00:04:45 - I don't know what is gonna happen to the other norms. So that is what we are investigating. We are asking if we correct one of the misperceived norms, what is gonna happen to the others? Is there going to be spillover effects? That is what we are doing in this paper. There are lots of papers about factors affecting female labor force participation among, among them, the social norms have been explored, explored

00:05:14 - Christina Bihi has lots of, lots of papers discussing the effect of social norms in shaping individual behavior and decision making. But in addition to the literature on social norms, recently researchers started to become interested in misperception of social norms. In fact, there is this review article by Burstein and Yang, Burstein and Yang 2022. They look at all these papers, research studies,

00:05:46 - and looking at the correction of these misperceptions and how they affect the outcomes. I think that paper is going to be really useful for someone who is interested in misperceptions correction of correction of misperceptions and their effects on outcomes. Our paper is closely related to is Stein At all 20 20, 20 20 paper, they survey Saudi med males about what they think about women working outside of home. So they find that Saudi men are fine for work, fine

Underestimating Support: Female Workforce Perceptions in Saudi Arabia

00:06:19 - but they are underestimating the opinions of others. I mean, marriot, Saudi men. As a result, they are underestimating the positive social norm. So when they tell this man that actually most of the people around you are supportive for women to work outside of home, they find that the outcomes for the wives of these Saudi men increased in the labor market. I mean, these, their wives started to apply

00:06:52 - So they find there's a positive effect of these, I mean, information treatments on outcomes. So unlike these studies that primarily focus on correcting misperception of one single norm and its effects on desired outcomes, our study examines the spillover effects of information treatments, on related beliefs. So we are not only interested in outcomes,

00:07:24 - closely related beliefs are affected by the information treatments, which aim to correct some misperceptions. So that paper was, they had participants were Saudi Marriot males. In our study, we surveyed, Saudi male and female university students from a large public university in Saudi Arabia. So we conducted an online survey study with three waves,

Exploring Perceptions of Female Labor Participation Norms

00:07:52 - we asked our participants their personal beliefs and their perception of norms related to female labor force participation. For example, we ask them whether, I mean, they think it's okay for women to work outside of home, but we did not only ask that question, remember that there are multiple norms affecting female labor participation. We did not only ask about the norm, regarding women working outside of home, but we also asked them whether they believe family, life

00:08:27 - and what their perception of, perception of the society's, beliefs about this. the, the same thing. so we, we ask participant to guess, what others think, on these same questions. We ask these same questions in every wave in order to understand whether what we measured is consistent, o over time. And in the first

00:08:59 - for women to work outside of home is positive. Everyone thinks that women should be allowed to work outside of home, however, they are severe underestimated. Once we found this misperception, we wanted to collect this misperception in the third wave, and we collected this misperception by run, running a randomized control trial. What we did was for half of the random selected subjects,

Unexpected Backfire of Positive Information on Women's Labor Beliefs

00:09:28 - The other half we were in the control group. In the treatment group, we told them what is the, I mean, real support for women to work outside of home and in the control group, they did not receive any information. And then we compare these two groups in terms of their related beliefs on other questions, such as children, whether children will suffer when mother works, because we are interested in spillover effects on related beliefs.

00:10:00 - remember we are giving them a positive information for vma female labor participation, right? But this positive information we found have backfired, and the treatment subjects started to believe that a larger share of others think that children will suffer when mother works. So this was kind of, I mean, surprising for us, because you may think that may, there may be some positive spill over effect.

00:10:32 - but we find the, I mean, negative effect. So, what might be the possible, mechanisms is that, so people have these overarching beliefs. We can call it meta beliefs, if you like, about female labor participation. And this meta belief is influenced by a variety of subie, right? One, one subie might be whether women should be working outside of home.

Understanding Cognitive Dissonance and Belief Revision

00:11:04 - When mother works, there are multiple subie feeding into the meta belief, right? So the existence, the existence of these, multiple subie subie creates a room for individuals to interpret n information in different ways. This interpretation process can be understood through the lens of cognitive dizziness theory and the self-serving belief distortion.

00:11:32 - that people experience psychological discomfort when, when they hold conflicting beliefs or when there's an information contradicting their existing beliefs, right? So, this, in order to reduce this discomfort, individuals may change their beliefs or find justifications for inconsistencies. For example, a person underestimating societal support for women working outside of home. When they receive this positive information, they start

00:12:04 - In order to reduce this discomfort, they may revise their, closely related beliefs in the negative direction so that everything is going to make sense. So this is one explanation, one mechanism. It may be the other is self-serving belief distortion, what we call self-serving belief distortion. it suggests that people selectively interpret information in order to hold on to beliefs that will make future look bright.

Navigating Misperceptions: Impacts on Social Norms and Gender Roles

00:12:37 - male university student, who wants to hold on to belief that women entering the workforce is not gonna create additional competition, or it is not going to disrupt traditional gender roles despite this new information we are giving to them, right? To maintain this comforting belief, they may update another subie in the negative direction so that they can hold onto discomforting belief

00:13:08 - competitive that much. So that might be another mechanism, for this finding. One thing we can say from this research is that correcting misperceptions may affect not only the outcomes, but also closely related beliefs. This is very important for researchers to, I mean, to pay attention to, because remember, we wanna increase the desired outcomes.

00:13:40 - of positive social norms. That is what all the research studies have been doing before, right? But when we correct one misperception on a specific norm, we don't know what is gonna happen to another closely related norm, which is also important for the, for the desired outcome. In our case, we may labor participation. I think researchers will, should pay attention to these,

Exploring Mechanisms Behind Spillover Effects

00:14:23 - and also it'll be fruitful, to investigate. Okay? these, I mean the mechanisms, closely. Why, why do we have these spillover effects? What are the mechanisms? Can we test? Can we disentangle different, possible mechanisms?

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Faculti

Popular in Economics

Macroeconomic modelling of CBDC: a critical review

Financing Private Credit

Failing Banks

Golden Fetters

Visions of Inequality

School Finance Equalization Increases Intergenerational Mobility

Olivier Blanchard on U.S. Pandemic-Era Inflation

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Page Structure

Popular in Economics

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Accessibility Options

Contrast Adjustment

Text Size Adjustment

Text Spacing Adjustment

Line Height Adjustment

Cursor Size Adjustment

Page Structure Options

Page Structure