A Radio Drama’s Effects on Attitudes Toward Early and Forced Marriage: Results From a Field Experiment in Rural Tanzania

• Published date: 01 July 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00104140221139385
• Author: Donald P. Green,Dylan W. Groves,Constantine Manda,Beatrice Montano,Bardia Rahmani
• Date: 01 July 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Comparative Political Studies

2023, Vol. 56(8) 1115–1155

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00104140221139385

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A Radio Drama’s Effects

on Attitudes Toward

Early and Forced

Marriage: Results From a

Field Experiment in Rural

Tanzania

Donald P. Green

1

, Dylan W. Groves

1

,

Constantine Manda

2

, Beatrice Montano

1

, and

Bardia Rahmani

1



Abstract

Early and forced marriage (EFM) is an increasing focus of international organi-

zations and local non-government organizations. This study assesses the extent to

which attitudes and norms related to EFM can be changed by locally tailored

media campaigns. A two-hour radio drama set in rural Tanzania was presented to

Tanzanian villagers as part of a placebo-controlled experiment randomized at the

village level. A random sample of 1200 villagers was interviewed at baseline and

invited to a presentation of the radio drama, 83% of whom attended. 95% of

baseline respondents were re-interviewed two weeks later, and 97% 15 months

after that. The radio drama produced sizable and statistically signif‌icant effects on

attitudes and perceived norms concerning forced marriage, which was the focus

of the radio drama, as well as more general attitudes about gender equality.

Fifteen months later, treatment effects diminished, but we continue to see ev-

idence of EFM-related attitude change.

1

Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

2

Economic & Social Research Foundation, Tanzania

Corresponding Author:

Donald Green, Department of Political Science, Columbia University, 420 W. 118th St, New

York, NY 10027 USA.

Email: dpg2110@columbia.edu

Keywords

African politics, experimental research, gender, sexuality and politics, media,

edutainment

Early marriage is pervasive worldwide. Given current trends, 150 million

girls below the age of 18 will marry between 2018 and 2030 (ICRW, 2018),

and while the global rate of earlymarriage fell from 33% of girls in 2000 to

20% in 2017, the total number of early marriages is projected to rise

because of population growth in the regions where it is most prevalent,

such as South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2011, a coalition of in-

ternational organizations, governments, and non-governmental organi-

zations launched an international campaign against early as well as forced

marriage, premised on the belief that early marriage is often foisted upon

girls and harmful to them (Cloward, 2016;Hodgkinson, 2016;Parsons

et al., 2015). While the campaign has successfully induced many gov-

ernments to formally outlaw early marriage and require brides’consent,

18% of countries still permit marriage under the age of 18, and 30%

provide for exemptions when the bride is younger than 15 years old (Arthur

et al., 2017). Moreover, early andf orcedmarriages remain common even in

countries where it is legally prohibited, especially in rural, conservative

communities where awareness and enforcement of marriage law is limited

(Wodon et al., 2017).

1

To address these gaps in efforts to legally compel an end to early and forced

marriages, the international campaign has built an expansive network of

grassroots civil society organizations focused on inf‌luencing social attitudes

and norms. Like many transnational social movements before it, the coalition

against early and forced marriages has placed considerable emphasis on

culturally tailored messages and entertainment-education (“edutainment”)

campaigns, often delivered through local media (Hodgkinson, 2016). If ef-

fective, such media campaigns offer a low-cost, scaleable tool for inf‌luencing

cultural practices in communities where state and civil society organizations

have little capacity. However, few of these messaging initiatives have been

rigorously evaluated.

We present evidence from an experiment designed to test the effects of one

such media campaign in Tanzania’s Tanga Region on attitudes toward early

and forced marriage and gender equality. The centerpiece of the campaign is a

radio drama written and produced in Tanga and designed to resonate with

Tangan audiences. Rather than appealing to human rights norms or Tanzanian

law, the story grounds its message in the story of a charismatic young girl and

locally recognizable Islamic religious teachings about a woman’s right to

aff‌irmative consent to her marriage under Islamic law.

1116 Comparative Political Studies 56(8)

Our study was set in an especially interesting political and social

context. The media messages were presented in remote, socially conser-

vative, rural communities in Tanga with a relatively balanced mix of

Muslims and Christians. The experiment also occurred at a time when the

issue of underage marriage and gender equality more broadly were po-

litically contested in Tanzania. Tanzania launched a National Plan of

Action to end violence against women and children in 2017, which

prominently featured a call to reduce rates of child marriage. While the

intervention was taking place, Tanzania’s highest court was deliberating

over government-supported legislation to allow early forced marriage for

girls between the ages of 15 and 18.

2

Nonetheless, rural communities in our

sample were almost entirely unaware of Tanzanian marriage law

(Emmanuel et al., 2022),

3

making this an ideal opportunity to investigate

the effect of media campaigns in areas where changes to formal marriage

law were afoot but remained relatively unknown.

Our f‌indings demonstrate both the potential and limitations of

entertainment-education as a means for changing public opinion on a timely

policy issue. When attitudes were measured approximately 2 weeks after

exposure to the radio program, villagers assigned to the treatment group

showed signif‌icantly and substantially reduced support for early marriage (5

percentage points) and forced marriage (9 percentage points). Perceived

norms also seem to have been changed somewhat, though effects are smaller

and only marginally signif‌icant. Villagers in the treatment group were slightly

less likely to see others in the community as supportive of early marriage (5

percentage points) or forced marriage (6 percentage points), and they were

also more likely to say that others in the community would report EFM to local

off‌icials (8 percentage points). The drama’s impact appears to have extended

beyond the immediate domain of EFM, with treated villagers becoming more

supportive of gender equality in the realms of schooling and workplace

participation. These results contrast with previous work, which f‌inds that the

effects of radio dramas are narrowly restricted to the core message articulated

in the storyline and do not carry over to more general social attitudes (Green

et al., 2020).

Although the experiment provides robust evidence of opinion change,

exposure to the locally resonant messages appears to change some attitudes

more readily than others. The radio drama’s effects on social attitudes did not

immediately translate into substantial changes in political priorities, such as

elevated support for a candidate campaigning against early marriage in a

hypothetical local election. And while the drama produced meaningful

changes in general attitudes relating to gender equality, it initially had a rather

muted effect on attitudes toward intimate partner violence (IPV).

As expected, the persuasive effects of a single exposure to edutainment

diminished over time. When re-interviewed 15 months after listening to the

Green et al. 1117