Religious leaders can motivate men to cede power and reduce intimate partner violence: Experimental evidence from Uganda

Christopher Boyer, Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Jeannie Annan, Tvisha Nevatia, Jasper Cooper, Jackline Namubiru, Lori Heise and Rachel Lehrer
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Christopher Boyer: a Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115;
Elizabeth Levy Paluck: b Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540;; c School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540;
Jeannie Annan: d Airbel Impact Lab, International Rescue Committee, New York, NY 10168;
Tvisha Nevatia: e Innovations for Poverty Action, Kampala, Uganda;
Jasper Cooper: f Department of Political Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093;
Jackline Namubiru: e Innovations for Poverty Action, Kampala, Uganda;
Lori Heise: g Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205;; h School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205
Rachel Lehrer: d Airbel Impact Lab, International Rescue Committee, New York, NY 10168;

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022, vol. 119, issue 31, e2200262119

Abstract: In most societies, religious leaders play an influential role in the construction of gender norms. One setting in which they exert their influence is the premarital or couples counseling course. We hypothesized that if leaders offered a more progressive religious interpretation of gender roles during these courses, emphasizing the need for men to improve their relationships by balancing power and decision-making with their spouses, violence would reduce. We find that when Christian leaders in Uganda offered these types of courses, power shifted from men to women, and intimate partner violence decreased by five percentage points a year later. Given the ubiquity of premarital counseling within churches, the intervention has the potential to reach a massive audience.

Keywords: intimate partner violence; religion; authorities; counseling; norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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