Study shows access to accurate information alone, is insufficient to persuade public to act on sexism

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes. Photo by Alexandr Choi on Unsplash.

Recently, I was having dinner with a woman I was dating. It was supposed to be romantic, so naturally we soon got to talking about my PPTs. (Hey, she’d already been gushing about this book she’d borrowed!) When she suggested that probably my students already knew all of Korea’s gender-related woes though, and wanted to hear solutions, not problems, I had to laugh that she had no idea what she was talking about.

My students? Listen to me??

Curiously, we’re no longer dating. But don’t worry—I got my book back. And of course I was taking her seriously really. I also just as firmly believe that just like learning of the changes wrought by the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98 is crucial to understanding why Korean society is the way it is today, nearly three decades later, determining why the #MeToo movement played out—is playing out—so differently in Korea and Japan, despite structurally being much the same, is just as necessary to grasping how the country is going to handle the next three:

Combine those two compulsions weighing on my mind, and totally not at all a third to prove my ex wrong about me, that’s why I paid so much attention to this news of an academic journal article just published, about a study of how to combat the gender wage gaps in Korea and Japan.

Or rather, how not to.

Specifically, it showed where there is little public willingness to confront an issue, then working to ensure greater awareness of that issue is not necessarily going to motivate people to suddenly do so. Even more specifically still, albeit outside the scope of this study, it is Japan’s refusal to confront the systemic sexual violence overseas during World War Two that is preventing confronting its endemic sexism at home today, as this recent book helped me realize.

And yet, its absence does not necessarily account for why #MeToo would shake things up so much in Korea either. Korean society it seems, and I hesitate to say Korean women especially, but will because it’s absolutely true, constantly surprise even long-time cynics like me.

Some excerpts from the summary in the news then, with a bonus link to the study itself at the end:

이화여대, “남녀 임금격차 정보, 정책 지지 바꿨다”

Ewha Womans University: “Information on Gender Wage Gap Shifted Support for Policies”

Hong In-shik, Pinpoint News, 15 May 2026

….남녀 임금 격차 등 성별 불평등에 대한 정확한 정보를 제공할 경우 성평등 정책 지지에 어떤 영향을 미치는지를 분석한 연구에서 한국과 일본 간 뚜렷한 차이가 확인됐다. 한국에서는 성평등 정책에 대한 지지가 높아진 반면, 일본에서는 정보 제공 효과가 거의 나타나지 않은 것으로 분석됐다.

….A study analyzing how providing accurate information about gender inequality, such as the gender wage gap, would affect support for gender equality policies, confirmed distinct differences between South Korea and Japan. While support for gender equality policies has increased in South Korea [and so providing information about gender inequality increases that support, providing the same information in Japan barely increases support at all].

이화여자대학교(총장 이향숙) 정치외교학과 고민희 교수 연구팀이 한국과 일본 성인 남녀 약 7000명을 대상으로 진행한 실험을 통해 성별 임금격차 인식 교정이 정책 태도 변화로 이어지는 과정에서 국가별 차이가 존재한다는 사실을 확인했다고 밝혔다.

A research team led by Professor Go Min-hee of the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Ewha Womans University…conducted an experiment with [about 3500 adults in Korea and Japan respectively] to confirm that there are country-specific differences in the process of correcting gender pay gap perceptions leading to policy changes.

….참가자들에게 실제 성별 임금 격차 데이터를 제공해 기존 오인식을 수정한 뒤 성평등 정책에 대한 태도와 지지 변화를 측정하는 방식이다. 정보 제공 효과를 보다 정확하게 검증하기 위해 대조군도 함께 운영했다.

….Participants were provided with real gender pay gap data [either of each country, or its world rankings] to correct existing misconceptions and then measuring changes in attitudes toward gender equality policies and support. A control group was also operated to more accurately verify the effectiveness of information delivery.

분석 결과는 국가별로 상반된 양상을 보였다. 한국에서는 성별 임금격차 정보를 접한 응답자들의 성평등 정책 지지가 유의미하게 상승했으며, 특히 여성 응답자에서 변화 폭이 컸다. 반면 일본에서는 동일한 정보를 제공했음에도 남녀 모두 정책 선호 변화가 거의 나타나지 않았다.

The results of the analysis showed a conflicting pattern on a national basis. Among respondents in South Korea, support for gender equality policies increased significantly among those who were given access to accurate Korean gender pay gap information, especially women. In Japan, on the other hand, despite being given the same information about the [similar] Japanese gap, both men and women showed little change in their policy preferences.

Photo by Gabriel Gonzalez on Unsplash.

….연구팀은 이러한 결과의 배경으로 양국의 사회적·정치적 환경 차이를 지목했다. 한국은 미투 운동과 디지털 성범죄 규탄 시위 등을 거치며 성평등 문제가 사회적 쟁점으로 부상했고, 정치권에서도 주요 의제로 다뤄졌다. 이 같은 사회적 맥락이 정보 수용성과 인식 변화를 높였다는 분석이다.

….The researchers pointed to differences in the social and political environment of the two countries against the background of these results. Through the #MeToo movement and protests against digital sexual crimes, the issue of gender equality has emerged as a salient social issue, and it has also been much on the agenda in the political sphere. This social context has increased information acceptance and change in perception.

반면 일본은 성차별 이슈가 지속적인 정치적 논쟁이나 사회적 동원으로 이어진 사례가 상대적으로 적어, 정확한 정보가 제공되더라도 정책 태도 변화로 연결되는 동력이 제한적이었다고 연구진은 설명했다.

Japan, on the other hand, has relatively few cases in which issues of sexism have led to ongoing political debates or social mobilizations, and, even if accurate information is provided, the force that leads to a change in policy attitudes has been limited, the researchers said.

고민희 교수는 “성평등 정책을 입안하거나 홍보할 때, 단순히 공신력있는 기관의 통계나 국가간 랭킹과 같은 자료만을 제시하는 것으로는 정책 지지를 이끌어내기 어렵다는 점이 드러났다”면서 “대중의 참여 의지를 북돋아 정책의 실효성을 높이기 위해선 사회 맥락을 고려한 문제 인식이나 관심 상황에 따른 정보 발신이 필요하다”고 연구 취지를 설명했다.

“When it comes to drafting or promoting gender equality policies, it has been shown that it is difficult to promote policy support by simply presenting data such as statistics from public institutions or rankings between countries,” Professor Go said. “In order to encourage the willingness of the public to participate and improve the effectiveness of policies, it is necessary to send information based on recipients’ awareness of or interest in the problems, and take social context into account.”

Usually at this endpoint in a post like this, I would lament that the actual journal article was written in Korean, and/or behind a ridiculous academic paywall. But not this time. As a reward for readers who made it this far, the article—Public Opinion Quarterly (25 April 2026), “Correcting Misperceptions Across Contexts: The Political Impact of Gender Inequality Information in Japan and South Korea” by Min Hee Go, Yesola Kweon, Hirofumi Miwa, and Yoshikuni Ono—is actually open access, short, very readable, and has a great deal to say about the science and theory of public opinion, including how to confront such seemingly intractable psychological biases like cognitive dissonance. I highly recommend it.

Please let me know what you think!

Related Posts:

• In Just Two Minutes, My Eyes Were Opened to Why Resolving the Comfort Women Issue is so Necessary for Japan’s #MeToo
• Was 21 Year-old Jeon In-hwa *Forced* to Appear on TV in a Swimsuit?
• “당신의 얼굴 괜찮습니까?/Is Your Face Okay?” Anti Deepfake Poster Misses the Mark
• Hashtag activism found in translation: Unpacking the reformulation of #MeToo in Japan
• Why #MeToo Failed in Japan (Trinity Women & Gender Minorities Review)
•  Black Box: The Memoir That Sparked Japan’s #MeToo Movement (Unseen Japan)

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