Sultan Mehmood, Shaheen Naseer, and Daniel L. Chen

Mehmood, S., Naseer, S. and Chen, D.L. (2024) Why Are Rights Revolutions Rare? August 2024.

We show that when traditional attitudes are challenged, norm disruptors pay the price. A recent experiment fostered more progressive gender attitudes among female teachers in Pakistan. We find, however, that fostering progressive gender attitudes elevated stress hormone concentrations in blood plasma and increased domestic violence. Leveraging random variation in the fraction of teachers treated within a school, we show that when additional teachers hold progressive attitudes—a moral bandwagoning effect—the costs of adopting progressive gender attitudes are attenuated. These findings underscore the toll of defying traditional gender norms: heightened stress and violence, ultimately hindering the advancement of gender rights.