This paper surveys recent research on changing culture and social norms in developing countries and proposes a simple framework to interpret these changes. It conceptualizes individual utility from a given action as a function of three components: intrinsic valuations, material payoffs, and social interactions. Using this lens, it reviews evidence on interventions that target each component and their interactions.
First, the researchers discuss efforts to shift intrinsic values through schooling and curricula, information campaigns, mass media, and empowerment programs, with particular attention to gender norms, intimate partner violence, and harmful practices such as female genital cutting. Second, they examine social determinants of behaviour, including misperceptions about others’ beliefs, coordination failures, and the role of intermediate “stepping-stone” actions in facilitating or hindering norm transitions. Third, they analyse how changes in material incentives, via labour market opportunities, transfers, and legal reforms, affect behaviour and underlying norms.
Throughout, this paper highlights methodological challenges in measuring norms and identifying mechanisms, and it emphasizes that policy effects depend critically on existing social structures and belief distributions. It concludes by outlining open questions from a positive and normative perspective.
