Gender Norms, Meta-Norms, and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Secondary Schools in Uttar Pradesh

Do social norms reduce the academic potential of girls in India by discouraging classroom participation, limiting aspirations, and hindering the development of key non-cognitive skills essential for academic achievement? Do gender norms affecting boys encourage behaviors that also constrain girls’ potential? While anecdotal evidence suggests that social dynamics play a crucial role in classroom interactions and outcomes, social norms theory has rarely been applied comprehensively to diagnose how essential motivators—personal beliefs, social expectations, and sanctioning expectations—shape participation, effort, competition, help-seeking, and, ultimately, learning in the classroom. Our research will use best-practice tools developed by our team to diagnose and disentangle social norms in the classroom. We will conduct a measurement pilot with adolescents in 30 rural secondary schools in Uttar Pradesh (grades 7–10) to quantify hidden social barriers to learning by measuring normative and empirical expectations, punishment expectations (e.g., bullying, gossip, social exclusion) that enforce compliance, and meta-norms regarding the appropriateness of sanctions. Separating the different mechanisms through which social norms operate will provide key insights into how the most effective interventions should be designed—whether they should target deeply held personal norms and meta-norms, correct pluralistic ignorance, or focus on reducing fears of punishment.