Appreciate you taking the time to read it Cathryn. Hope to hear what you think!

Our study reveals a critical issue: how we measure beliefs matters.

To truly understand attitudes toward IPV, we need indirect and mixed-methods approaches—not just self-reports.

Curious?

Read the full paper here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....

✅ Self-reports: Women appear more accepting of IPV than men.

❌ Indirect reports: Men actually express greater acceptance of IPV than women.

This suggests self-reports underestimate men’s true attitudes.

A major challenge for research relying on direct questioning.

We studied 317 married couples in Northwestern Tanzania.

🔹 We compared conventional self-reports with a novel indirect measure—wives reporting on their husbands' attitudes.

The results? A complete reversal of the expected pattern.

Self-reports on sensitive topics—like IPV—are often biased.

People may underreport stigmatized beliefs to appear more socially acceptable.

Could this explain why men consistently report lower acceptance of IPV than women?

We put this to the test.

A surprising pattern in global health research: Women often report greater acceptance of intimate partner violence (IPV) than men.

This has been widely interpreted as women internalizing inequitable gender norms.

Our recent study asks what if that conclusion is wrong?

For similar results, see also this excellent paper by Mhairi Gibson et al.

Sensitive 👏topics👏, need👏 sensitive👏 tools.

Women routinely self-report *greater* agreement with statements condoning intimate partner violence against women than men do.

Here, we resolve this paradoxical finding; demonstrating that gender differences are reversed when using indirect reporting...

📝 with @josephkilgallen.bsky.social et al.

Thanks Nic!

Many thanks to my advisor David Lawson @davidwlawson.bsky.social, Mike Gurven @mgurven.bsky.social, Nicole Thompson Gonzalez @nic-tg.bsky.social, and Alex Mwijage, as well as our collaborators at the Tanzanian National Institute for Medical Research in Mwanza, Tanzania!

📌 Key Findings:
🔹 Young men express supportive views but often fail to translate them into action.
🔹 Elders support women in ways that reinforce male authority.
🔹 Women prioritize practical over abstract rights-based support
🔹 Urbanization is reshaping gender norms—but not in uniform ways.

🚨 New Paper Alert! 🚨

“You Are Married by the Woman” explores how men’s support for women’s empowerment is understood in a fast-urbanizing Tanzanian community.

If you're interested in gender, masculinity, and social change, check it out!