Misperception of peer beliefs reinforces inequitable gender norms among Tanzanian men

Gender role ideology, i.e. beliefs about how genders should behave, is shaped by social learning. Accordingly, if perceptions about the beliefs of others are inaccurate this may impact trajectories of cultural change. Consistent with this premise, recent studies report evidence of a tendency to over...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary human sciences 2024, Vol.6, p.e17-e17, Article e17
Main Authors: Lawson, David W, Chen, Zhian, Kilgallen, Joseph A, Brand, Charlotte O, Ishungisa, Alexander M, Schaffnit, Susan B, Kumogola, Yusufu, Urassa, Mark
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Attitudes
Behavior
Cultural change
Cultural evolution
Empowerment
Gender
Gender equity
global health
Husbands
Hypotheses
Ideology
Labor market
Maternity & paternity leaves
Men
Peer tutoring
Researching Sensitive Topics
Sexism
Social discrimination learning
social learning
Social norms
Wives
Women
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Summary:Gender role ideology, i.e. beliefs about how genders should behave, is shaped by social learning. Accordingly, if perceptions about the beliefs of others are inaccurate this may impact trajectories of cultural change. Consistent with this premise, recent studies report evidence of a tendency to overestimate peer support for inequitable gender norms, especially among men, and that correcting apparent 'norm misperception' promotes transitions to relatively egalitarian beliefs. However, supporting evidence largely relies on self-report measures vulnerable to social desirability bias. Consequently, observed patterns may reflect researcher measurement error rather than participant misperception. Addressing this shortcoming, we examine men's gender role ideology using both conventional self-reported and a novel wife-reported measure of men's beliefs in an urbanising community in Tanzania. We confirm that participants overestimate peer support for gender inequity. However, the latter measure, which we argue more accurately captures men's true beliefs, implies that this tendency is relatively modest in magnitude and scope. Overestimation was most pronounced among men holding relatively inequitable beliefs, consistent with misperception of peer beliefs reinforcing inequitable norms. Furthermore, older and poorly educated men overestimated peer support for gender inequity the most, suggesting that outdated and limited social information contribute to norm misperception in this context.
ISSN:2513-843X
2513-843X
DOI:10.1017/ehs.2024.6