What would others say? Exploring gendered and caste-based social norms in Central India through vignettes

Social norms can determine the effectiveness of agricultural research-and-development (R&D) interventions to enable inclusive rural development. However, only a few methods have been tested and deemed appropriate to assess the strength of social norms in empirical research. In this paper, we explore the potential of vignettes to study gender norms across different caste groups in the Indian rurality. The primary data were collected through a gender-differentiated survey among 420 wheat-farming households in 18 rural villages of Central India in 2018. The data analysis showed significant inter- and intra-household heterogeneities concerning individuals' realization of social norms as factors curtailing individual aspirations. When the follow-up responses were evaluated against respondents' socio-cultural context, we found that respondents from marginalized castes, women, and young people were more pro-women in their outlook than others. We also found that the individual responses elicited from women farmers were strongly associated with their decision-making abilities and could be employed in empirical studies concerning various R&D interventions and technological change.