Experiments Workshop: Eric Arias, NYU

Media and Violence Against Women: A Field Experiment on Norms Change in Rural Mexico

Abstract: How does media influence social norms? While many scholars have studied the effect of media on people’s beliefs, we know little about the channels through which this effect operates. Two mechanisms have generally been suggested but not rigorously tested. Media may provide information about norms and persuade individuals to accept them (i.e., learning channel). Additionally, media may inform listeners about what other people are thinking and thus operate as a peer pressure mechanism (i.e., social channel). In this paper, I test these hypotheses using a randomized field experiment in Mexico, examining the case of violence against women. I test the effect of a radio program on people’s attitudes toward this type of violence. The experiment manipulated the social context in which individuals were able to receive the program. The randomization process interacted with exogenous topography conditions that precluded parts of the community to be able to listen to the broadcast. Within the area that had access to the broadcast, people were invited to listen to the program in a common place; within the area that did not received the broadcast, subjects listened to the exact same message, but did it individually using an audio CD hence precluding them from the social aspect of the previous treatment. While the individual learning mechanism had no effects, the evidence supports the social channel: it increased personal and perceived social rejection of violence against women. It also (weakly) decreased the expectation that violence will decline in the future. No difference was found on the propensity to sign a petition to create a support group. Lastly, all observed effects are stronger with less-educated and older individuals which also has important theoretical and policy implications.