Misperceived Social Norms: Women Working Outside the Home in Saudi Arabia
Leonardo Bursztyn, Alessandra L. González, David Yanagizawa-Drott
American Economic Review / NBER · 2020
Abstract
Shows that pluralistic ignorance—privately held but publicly misperceived beliefs—can lock in a social equilibrium, using the case of married men's attitudes toward women working outside the home.
Methodology
Survey experiment with young married men in Saudi Arabia measuring both their private support for women working and their beliefs about other men's support, then randomly correcting those second-order beliefs and tracking real downstream choices for their wives.
Findings
The vast majority of men privately support women working but sharply underestimate how many other men agree. Correcting this misperception increases men's willingness to let their wives work and raises real outcomes such as wives applying and interviewing for jobs—evidence that a norm can persist purely because everyone misreads everyone else.
Applied nudge
When a desirable behavior is privately common but assumed to be rare, publish the true norm—correcting second-order beliefs ('most people actually support/do this') can unlock behavior that incentives cannot.
Citation
Bursztyn, L., González, A. L., & Yanagizawa-Drott, D. (2020). Misperceived social norms: Women working outside the home in Saudi Arabia. American Economic Review, 110(10), 2997-3029.
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