Entertainment-education serials can change real audiences’ behavior at massive scale

Evidence

Viewers care deeply about the characters because they are personally relevant. In Taru, a radio serial broadcast in India with a listenership of about 25 million, a mother challenges restrictive cultural norms to promote her daughter Taru’s education. Taru’s story inspired formerly illiterate teenagers who had no access to education to become avid readers and pursue an education. Here is an example of Taru’s powerful impact on teenage listeners: “There are moments when I feel that Taru is directly talking to me, usually at night. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2832

Categorization

• SEED: Entertainment-education serials offer a contrast case for how moral norms change constructively through modeling — a positive inverse of how media spreads harmful disengagement.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2832