17 Nov, 2025
Social norms are shared expectations within a community that influence what is acceptable and what is discouraged (detested even), and thus guide individual behaviour. They are reflected in interpersonal conversations, in popular media, and sometimes even in laws, policies and other formal systems. Norms often shape what is default. Even so, societal expectations are only one cog in a complex web of influences on human behaviour. Take the COM-B model for example: we need to have the capacity (C) and motivation (M) for change, in addition to the opportunity (O) that norms create.
Shifting norms necessitates providing an alternative target behaviour and then shaping expectations, building capacity and motivation to encourage it. This can be done through tangible incentives as well as through social learning mechanisms including modelling. Entertainment media and cultural champions, as the global evidence review and India deep dive suggest, are effective in modelling and incentivising the desirable new behaviours, in turn shaping expectations.
The purpose of The Norms Dialogue was to weave perspectives from academia, funders, government and civil society organisations to harness the potential of social norms for adolescent empowerment.
About the India deep dive report:
This report presents findings from a country specific deep dive conducted by PCI Advisory in collaboration with the Center on Gender Equity and Health at the University of California San Diego, in support of the learning objectives of the Gates Foundation’s Adolescent and Youth Learning Agenda team.
It builds on a global evidence review that revealed a significant gap in the literature on norms-shifting interventions in India, despite growing global interest in these approaches. It explores norms shifts and behavioural changes, focusing on the impact of norms-shifting interventions that leverage entertainment media and cultural champions. It examines how these interventions influence the health and well-being of adolescent girls and young women aged 10 to 24 years across key outcomes related to women’s economic empowerment, child, early, and forced marriage, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health in India.