Prévenir les mariages précoces et forcés au Bénin (PROJEUNES)
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The PROJEUNES (Preventing early and forced marriage in Benin) project demonstrated that addressing early and forced marriage (EFM) in Benin requires shifting deeply entrenched social norms that define girls’ value in terms of marriageability and fertility. The project successfully fostered critical reflection among youth and community actors, challenging beliefs that favor […]
Gender Norms, Violence and Adolescent girls’ Trajectories: Evidence from a Field Experiment in India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study underscores the central role of social norms linked to gender roles, marriage, and family honor in shaping adolescent girls’ agency and decision-making in rural West Bengal. Norms that prioritize early marriage, family reputation, and male authority constrain girls’ autonomy, particularly around education, mobility, and sexuality. Shifting these norms requires […]
Effects of PREPARE, a Multi-component, School-Based HIV and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Prevention Programme on Adolescent Sexual Risk Behaviour and IPV: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study measured social norms explicitly, focusing on perceived expectations from peers, family, and partners around condom use and delaying sex. The intervention addressed both descriptive and injunctive norms by attempting to shift young people’s perceptions of what behaviors are typical and appropriate in their communities. While the intervention improved knowledge […]
Young Adolescents’ Endorsement of Restrictive Gender Norms: Evidence From a Community-Based Intervention in Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study shows that targeting adult stakeholders through community-based norms diffusion can effectively reduce young adolescents’ endorsement of restrictive gender norms—particularly among boys. It highlights that gender attitudes during early adolescence are strongly shaped by peers, families, and broader social contexts, and that community-level interventions can shift these attitudes when they […]
Narrative Persuasion and Social Norms in Entertainment-Education: Results from a Radio Drama in Mozambique
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around maternal health, sanitation, and reporting sexual abuse in Mozambique remain resistant to change, with community norms often not aligned with the behaviors promoted by the intervention. Although audiences engaged deeply with the radio drama’s characters and stories, indicating strong narrative persuasion, prevailing social norms continued to favor inaction […]
Evaluation of a male engagement intervention to transform gender norms and improve family planning and HIV service uptake in Kabale, Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights the difficulty of transforming entrenched gender norms through short-duration, community-based interventions without adequately trained facilitators. Although some improvements were observed in men’s health-seeking behaviors, meaningful changes in gender attitudes were minimal. The findings underscore that deeply held cultural beliefs are resistant to change, especially when interventions are not […]
Transforming the attitudes of young men about gender roles and the acceptability of violence against women, Bihar.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study shows that gender-transformative interventions targeting rural, out-of-school young men can shift harmful norms around masculinity and gender-based violence. Changes were especially strong among boys who regularly attended sessions. Critically, the program worked not just by changing individual attitudes but by influencing what young men believed their peers respected, suggesting […]
The media or the message? Experimental evidence on mass media and modern contraception uptake in Burkina Faso
Key Social Norms Take-aways: While the study does not frame its analysis using formal social norms theory or terminology, it implicitly engages with normative influences—particularly descriptive norms—through its mass media intervention. The radio program aimed to shift perceptions of contraceptive use by portraying it as common, accepted, and beneficial. Results suggest that exposure to the […]
Using Social Media to Change Gender Norms: An Experiment within Facebook Messenger in India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This evaluation affirms that social media can be powerful vehicles for shifting social norms around gender and violence against women in India. The format of media content critically shaped outcomes. A fictional, humorous series led to meaningful reductions in harmful gender norms and increased empathy toward survivors, while a documentary format […]
Marketing Gender Norms: A Social Media Experiment in India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study shows that digital platforms like Facebook Messenger can be leveraged to shift social norms around gender and violence against women. Format matters: a fictional, humorous video series reduced regressive gender attitudes and acceptance of violence against women, while a documentary format was more effective in motivating public action. Subtle, […]