Pluralistic Ignorance about Work-Life Balance and Expected Sanctions:

An Agent-Based Simulation

Abstract

While many companies have actively implemented human resource initiatives to promote employee work-life balance (WLB), some workplaces still maintain old workplace norms against WLB, making it difficult for employees to utilize such benefits. Previous literature has attributed this issue in part to a phenomenon known as pluralistic ignorance, where unpopular norms are maintained due to misperceptions of each other’s beliefs. Existing studies have confirmed that pluralistic ignorance undermines employee WLB, but how to attenuate pluralistic ignorance has not yet been fully examined. Therefore, this study uses agent-based simulation and examines how to resolve pluralistic ignorance. The model also incorporates differences in the nature of norms, particularly the degree of sanction expectations that are assumed to be related to the resolution of pluralistic ignorance. Our analysis confirmed that pluralistic ignorance about the norms with weak expected sanctions is more likely to be resolved by employees’ honest display of their true beliefs. The results also showed that pluralistic ignorance could take various forms, indicating the need to be aware of its different forms when considering intervention strategies in future research.