Why have some countries undergone rapid cultural change, while others are marked by persistence? And why does social norm policing often revolve around gender?

One key mediating factor is the great economic divergence. Some countries are now rich, while others remain poor. In places with weak job creation and chronic precarity, people remain heavily dependent on kinship networks. Men maintain inclusion in vital networks by ensuring their families conform to established strictures. Fear of social exclusion motivates an instrumental concern for approval.

Insecurity and instability - exacerbated by conflicts and ecological threats - may also generate intrinsic desires for group conformity and norm enforcement.

Economics is not the whole story, however. Latin America and MENA have undergone similar growth trajectories, yet Latin Americans have become considerably more liberal, secular and supportive of gender equality. Precarity thus only partly explains cultural persistence.