This study examines the impact of peer pressure on academic decisions. Analysts Leonardo Bursztyn and Robert Jensen conducted an experiment in four large, low-performing, low-income Los Angeles high schools whereby eleventh-grade students were offered complimentary access to a popular online SAT prep course. Over 800 students participated. Analysts used two sign-up sheets, which they randomly varied. One told students that their decision to enroll would be public, meaning their classmates would know they signed up; the other told them it would be kept private. The key finding is that, in non-honors courses, sign-up was 11 percentage points lower when students believed others in the class would know whether they agreed to participate, compared to those who were told it would be kept private—suggesting that these adolescents believe there is a social cost to looking smart. In honors classes, there was no difference in sign-up rates under the two conditions. Because students in honors and non-honors classes obviously differ, to help mitigate selection bias, Bursztyn and Jansen then examined results only from students who took two honors classes—some of whom would be sitting in honors classes when they were offered the decision to participate and some of whom would be sitting in non-honors courses. They found that making the decision to enroll "public" rather than private decreases sign up rates by 25 percentage points when the “two-honors-class” students are in one of their non-honors classes. Yet when students are in one of their honors courses, making the decision public increases sign up rates by 25 percentage points. Moreover, based on student surveys, students in non-honors classes who say it is important to be popular are less likely to sign up when the decision is public rather than private, whereas students who say it is not important are not affected at all. Changing cultural norms is obviously a difficult thing to do, but we need to recognize that, when actions are observable, some kids may act counter to their best interests.
SOURCE: Leonardo Bursztyn and Robert Jensen, "How Does Peer Pressure Affect Educational Investments?," National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 20714 (November 2014).
