A recent study shows how correction to misperceived norms leads to behavior change. From the abstract (edited):
Through the custom of guardianship, husbands typically have the final word on their wives’ labor supply decisions in Saudi Arabia. We provide incentivized evidence that the vast majority of young married men in Saudi Arabia privately support women working outside the home, while they substantially underestimate the level of support for women working outside the home by other similar men – even men from their same social setting, such as their neighbors. We then show that randomly correcting these beliefs about others increases married men’s willingness to help their wives search for jobs.
I find it to lend support to efforts to show that giving effectively is a normal behavior, that there are many people that think animal suffering is important, etc.
For those who won’t read the paper, the phenomenon is called pluralistic ignorance (Wikipedia):
… is a situation in which a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but go along with it because they assume, incorrectly, that most others accept it.
A recent study shows how correction to misperceived norms leads to behavior change. From the abstract (edited):
I find it to lend support to efforts to show that giving effectively is a normal behavior, that there are many people that think animal suffering is important, etc.
For those who won’t read the paper, the phenomenon is called pluralistic ignorance (Wikipedia):