Joint Learning by Doing

About this event

Social interactions are often thought to facilitate learning about new technologies but the barriers to learning are less well-understood. We cross-randomize temporary access to a household technology and exposure to a randomly assigned peer among women across 40 villages in rural Nepal, to distinguish the effects of information exchange, observational learning, and joint use. Technology access alone increases eventual adoption, beliefs about benefits, and knowledge of how to use it. However, among those with technology access, peer exposure leads to less exploration of different dimensions of the technology, more concentrated attention, lower knowledge, and no improvement in beliefs. We rationalize this using a model in which shared ownership of a technology raises the social cost of eliciting information. A survey experiment supports this mechanism, showing that joint ownership reduces willingness to ask questions, especially with socially distant peers. At the same time, we find that shared experiences of the technology increase social interaction and reduce loneliness, with interactions persisting six months later. These results suggest that technology adoption and social interaction can be strategic complements even when social learning is limited.