How Does Media Influence Social Norms? A Field Experiment on the Role of Common Knowledge.
A radio program in Mexico decreased personal and perceived social acceptance of violence against women.
Media has the power to influence individual beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Thus, social norms that influence and encourage gender violence have been targeted by policy interventions using mass media communication. Prior research suggests that media influences through two effects: the individual or direct effect (private) or the social or indirect effect (public). In the individual effect, media information about new norms may persuade individuals to accept them. In the social effect, the information creates common knowledge of a norm and enhances social coordination as individuals more readily accept the information if they believe others have also accepted it. This study examined whether media’s social mechanism has a stronger impact than its individual mechanism on changing violent attitudes against women.
This study conducted a natural and randomized experiment in the rural indigenous community of San Bartolome Quialana in Oaxaca, Mexico using a multi-part soap opera radio program telling a story of a relationship that slowly becomes violent. The soap opera was broadcast via a community loudspeaker and only reached a portion of the community due to topographical conditions (creating the natural experiment component). Households within the loudspeaker’s reach were either randomly invited to listen to the soap opera at a community meeting or were able to hear the public broadcast in their own homes. This design tested whether public transmission of the soap opera alone was sufficient to influence norms, and whether creating certainty about common knowledge from face-to-face interactions with community members enhanced the social effects. Individuals outside the loudspeaker’s reach were randomly and privately invited to listen to the soap opera using an audio CD to test the individual mechanism. A post-intervention survey measured norms, attitudes, and behavior regarding violence against women.
Cite this Article
Arias, Eric. “How Does Media Influence Social Norms? Experimental Evidence on the Role of Common Knowledge.” Political Science Research and Methods, vol. 7, no. 3, July 2019, pp. 561–578.
Arias, E. (2019). How Does Media Influence Social Norms? Experimental Evidence on the Role of Common Knowledge. Political Science Research and Methods, 7(3), 561–578.
Arias, Eric. “How Does Media Influence Social Norms? Experimental Evidence on the Role of Common Knowledge.” Political Science Research and Methods 7, no. 3 (July 2019): 561–78.