Contraceptive underuse in Tanzania was motivational, not informational

Evidence

Even stronger evidence for the effectiveness of serial dramas was obtained in a study in Tanzania, where regions with separate radio transmitters have little overlap of their signals. The separation provided a unique opportunity for an experimental comparison of adoption of contraception in broadcast and nonbroadcast regions, coupled with a delayed treatment design. At the time of the study, Tanzania’s population was 36 million. The fertility rate was 5.6 children per woman and was projected to double in 25 years. No amount of economic development can cope with this rate of population growth. Before the study, the serial drama was broadcast by radio in one major region of the country; the other region was the control. The program addressed both family planning and sexual practices that increase vulnerability to infection with the HIV-AIDS virus. People had access to contraceptive methods and family planning clinics but did not take advantage of them. The problem was neither a lack of information nor unavailability. Rather, it was primarily motivational. The dramatic series provided the impetus for change. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2867

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the existing vault claim that policy failures often stem from motivational/psychological factors rather than information deficits, analogous to Cooper’s arguments that social-conservative policy moves on emotional rather than rational grounds.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2867