Economics Research Seminar Series: Elif Incekara-Hafalir

It is a common policy intervention to provide accurate information to correct misperceptions of norms. However, the effects of such interventions on closely related beliefs are not well understood. To shed light on this, we conducted surveys with university students in Saudi Arabia where they were presented with a subset of six questions related to social norms about women working. With respect to women working outside of the home or in mixed-gender environments, students underestimate the overwhelming support for female labor participation (FLP), consistent with (Bursztyn2020). However, on related questions about the effects of women working on family life and children, the revealed norms are not as supportive of FLP, and this lack of support is not overestimated. We correct the underestimated beliefs, but find that the information treatment had a negative spillover effect (e.g. in an anti-FLP direction) on one of the related beliefs we measured and no effect on others. We discuss self-serving belief distortion as a possible mechanism behind this spillover effect.