UCSBTheCurrent
When it comes to gender roles, rights and responsibilities, different cultures abide by different beliefs that are handed down through generations and picked up through social learning. While some acquired beliefs reflect more egalitarian values, many others privilege the autonomy and wellbeing of men — and once established, this patriarchal ideology has proven difficult to change. Biases in how we learn beliefs from others may help to explain why.
“Recent studies across diverse cultural contexts reveal a common tendency to overestimate peer support for patriarchal beliefs about gender roles,” explained David W. Lawson, a professor of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara. “This tendency is especially pronounced among men, and when combined with a well-known desire to seek social conformity, may be a substantial barrier to advancing women’s empowerment.”
In a pair of recent papers, Lawson and his team at UCSB’s Applied Evolutionary Anthropology Lab shed light on possible explanations for this bias. Their research was carried out in an urbanizing rural community in northwestern Tanzania, a dynamic setting where urbanization is increasing women’s education and men are slowly starting to adopt more egalitarian attitudes.
In the first paper, published in Evolutionary Human Sciences, the research team confirmed that men tend to overestimate peer support for patriarchal beliefs. For example, while 17% of men were supportive of the statement “It is better to have more sons than daughters,” the average participant estimated that 40% of their peers would agree. This same pattern held for a wide range of beliefs about gender.
The team also considered which types of men are most likely to misjudge their peers. Co-first author Zhian Chen, who recently completed his masters in anthropology, orchestrated the data analysis. “In communities experiencing ongoing cultural change, assumptions about the beliefs of others may be based on lagged social information,” Chen explained. “Consistent with this argument, we found that older men, who are more exposed to outdated information, made the largest overestimations of peer support for patriarchal beliefs.”
The second paper, published in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, further supports the idea that beliefs about gender roles are often rendered invisible among peer groups because associated activities, such as whether or not men contribute to domestic tasks or support or oppose women’s autonomy in decisions about sex and reproduction, happen behind closed doors.
First author Alexander Ishungisa, a researcher at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, drew this conclusion from a series of focus group discussions with local community members. “Participants made clear that what other men believe is not always easy to tell from publicly observed behavior,” he said. “If some men make first steps to supporting women in private, this will be invisible to others and leave other men misinformed about changing values.”
The study also revealed that men are open about strategically conveying adherence to traditional masculine stereotypes, even when it’s at odds with their personal preferences.
“Men told stories of hiding behaviors that support women and of exaggerating their authority in household decisions,” Ishungisa said. “By doing this they ensure that they are seen as strong men in their community and avoid potential costs of being seen as violating tradition.”
The team believes these results support theoretical accounts of gender roles as socially performed rather than reflecting rigid or innate preferences, in what is sometimes called the social “doing of gender.” From this perspective, social expectation exerts a powerful influence on behavior.
If misperceptions about others serve to make patriarchal norms resistant to change, then interventions encouraging women’s empowerment may benefit from creating more open dialogue between men. By doing so, problematic misperceptions can be overturned, and men may feel more comfortable embracing changing gender roles at home and in public.
“Our work certainty supports the idea that combating stubborn misperceptions about others in our communities could be a useful strategy in promoting women’s empowerment,” Lawson said. “We still have a lot to learn about the dynamics of social learning when it comes to gender roles, and anthropologists studying cultural evolution and social learning strategies have a lot of potential to contribute to these debates.”
The research was funded by a Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund underwritten by the John Templeton Foundation, and carried out as part of an ongoing collaboration between the Applied Evolutionary Anthropology Lab at UC Santa Barbara and the National Institute for Medical Research in Mwanza, Tanzania.
COAST – ease up on the caps, it makes you seem kinda crazy….
Where is Kamala? Is she missing? You can see her in a couple days as she wipes the floor with your cotton candy bag of a man.
Where’s KAMALA…? Anyone…? Clearly, the same campaign managers who ran Biden’s Basement Campaign are doing the same with this incapable candidate to shield her from THE PEOPLE… So great that our Mainstream Media buys into this and is part of it…. For all you who are voting for Kamala based on her GENDER and only that, you are doing a disservice to your kids and grandkids. THS ELECTION SHOULD BE ABOUT POLICIES…. ECONOMY, FOREIGN POLICY, BORDER, ENERGY (NOT JUST GREEN ENERGY) REMOVING GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS, REMOVING GOVERNMENT MANDATES ON EVERYTHING…!
Crazy nonsense. Please come out of your fantasy bubble and try to live in the real world.
You mean like remove government regulations and mandates on women’s healthcare?!
You do sound more stressed out than usual. You might learn something if you calmly read this article.
If you read any news, you’d know where Kamala Harris is. I’m not voting for her because she’s female, I’m voting for her because she’s the Dem nominee. And because she’s not that other guy, the orange one.
Anonymous – Harris, the “nominee” for president that never received a single vote. What did Trump do during his four years in office that had a negative impact on your life? If he was going to do all the BS he’s reportedly going to do if elected, don’t you think he would have done some or all of that BS his first term? Think back to the past years under the Biden/Harris administration. Can you truly say you want more of the same for the next four years? Voting for Harris “because she the Dem nominee – [and not] the orange one. Brilliant.
And you’re voting for the orange one because… (oh, you don’t really know, do you?) If you think that Trump did not try all or most of the BS you so accurately describe in his first term, listen to some of those who actually worked in his administration. He couldn’t get away with it then, because he was surrounded by people who respected the constitution just enough to control his weirdest impulses. This time, he’s got Project 2025 to guide him, getting rid of civil service workers and making them political appointees, etc. In fact, Trump is little more than a useful idiot to these Heritage Foundation types. They, in turn, are frustrated by his inability to behave rationally which may cost them their dreams of power.
More unhinged and uneducated nonsense
I’ll definitely take four more years of stability rather than going back to the Trump family of grifters raking every Penny possible out of the Presidency. Are you aware that Jared Kushner launched an investment fund with TWO BILLION dollars handed to him by the Saudi murderer MBS right after Trump was booted?
And you people are yapping about the Biden family being corrupt, LOL.
Alex, “Grifters raking in every penny possible out of the presidency…” What about the Biden family selling access to Biden and his influence to the Chinese, Ukranians, etc???
Right, so you have a problem with that and you don’t have a problem with Trump doing it at 10x.
Show proof of “the Biden family selling access to Biden and his influence to the Chinese, Ukranians, etc?”
The US House Oversight Committee hasn’t.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Oversight_Committee_investigation_into_the_Biden_family
” If he was going to do all the BS he’s reportedly going to do if elected, don’t you think he would have done some or all of that BS his first term?”
Everything right wingers say is ignorant and/or dishonest. It’s very well known why and how Trump was restricted in his first term and how those restrictions would be off in a second term. You would know these things if you got out of your right wing media bubble. In any case, “he won’t be as much a fascist as you think” is no kind of argument.
“Think back to the past years under the Biden/Harris administration. Can you truly say you want more of the same for the next four years?”
God yes … the most effective administration, improving the lives of many, since FDR.
Coast you are supremely unhinged and uneducated.
Hi, Coast, she’s on the campaign trail. Her schedule is publicly available.
Her policies are public and clear and she will actually achieve them. Unlike Trump who achieved the least of any President in living memory.
You’ll be okay buddy.
Try those interventions in a Muslim theocracy and see what happens to you.
This comment is so silly. Try as the GOP might, America is not a theocracy. But these interventions are proven to work in developed countries with low poverty, low crime, and increased quality of life. Wouldn’t be so bad here would it?
What is “silly”? True that America is not a theocracy. But what in your mind does the GOP have to do with a country like Afghanistan or Iran?
The GOP is regulating what women can do with their own bodies. The GOP is regulating free speech by banning books and disallowing what can be said in classroom settings (eg. racial injustices in American history, “don’t say gay,” etc.). The GOP is forcing religion into publicly funded classrooms. Just a few examples of how the GOP is forcing their strict religious and authoritarian style of control at the state level, similar to dictatorships seen throughout the world.
But none of that has anything to do with the original poster’s comment about Muslim theologies. How do you jump from Afghanistan to GOP???
You clearly have no understanding of the point of the original comment.
The OP clearly stated “Muslim theocracies.” So what lack of understanding about that is indicated by being confused about the jump to an anti-GOP rant?
Whataboutism is intellectual bankruptcy.
To get back to the topic of this study:
Men are prone to male peer pressure and for this reason don’t stick up for womens’ rights because they don’t want to be seen being anti-male; stepping out of the typical social paradigm.
Sound familiar?
It’s an ongoing issue and discussion in America. People of both sexes urge others to speak up against denigration of others when they observe it.
It’s the fight against sticking out; speaking out against your social group and speaking up for other, lesser groups. It’s the old “see something, say something” tag line. We who defend those who are lesser are trying to speak up when we hear and see something. Yes, even for women in 2024 in America.
It’s needed in all countries around the world.
An example:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/washington-post-highlights-anti-abortion-men-in-red-states-who-changed-their-minds-on-reproductive-rights/ar-AA1pWatW
Free link to Wa Post article:
https://wapo.st/3MC9CPl
“The emergence of men’s voices in deeply conservative states — several with measures to protect abortion on the ballot in November — has been particularly striking.
In a series of posts on X that went viral this spring, Texas radio DJ Ryan Hamilton detailed what happened to his wife, Jess, during a prolonged miscarriage at 13 weeks. She was refused treatment and sent home by two Dallas-area medical facilities where doctors cited the state’s abortion restrictions, Hamilton said. She ended up bleeding heavily for more than 24 hours until she lost consciousness on their bathroom floor.”
And many other stories.
Other stories that every female has.
I dare you to show me a female of any age who doesn’t have a story of being harassed.
Something as “simple” as being touched on a bus, or spoken to or followed when one gets off the bus. That was my first example.
Sexism in general? Being ignored or downplayed for being female? All the time.
Fear of rape? All the time.
I grew up and live in SB, I didn’t let it affect my daily life. I thrived. But it’s always there. The threat is ALWAYS there.
It’s still true that, paraphrasing, and thanks to Margaret Atwood, ‘men fear women laughing at them. Women fear men raping or killing them.’