scholarly journals Stress Reactions Cannot Explain the Gender Gap in Willingness to Compete

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Buser ◽  
Anna Dreber ◽  
Johanna Mollerstrom
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Stress Reactions ◽  
Willingness To Compete

scholarly journals How Stress Affects Performance and Competitiveness Across Gender

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 3295-3310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Cahlíková ◽  
Lubomír Cingl ◽  
Ian Levely
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Piece Rate ◽  
Incentive Structures ◽  
Salivary Cortisol Level ◽  
Willingness To Compete

Because many key career events, such as examinations and interviews, involve competition and stress, gender differences in response to these factors could help to explain the labor market gender gap. In a laboratory experiment, we manipulate psychosocial stress using the Trier Social Stress Test and confirm that this is effective by measuring salivary cortisol level and heart rate. Subjects perform in a real-effort task under both tournament and piece-rate incentives, and we elicit willingness to compete. We find that women under heightened stress perform worse than women in the control group when compensated with tournament incentives, whereas there is no treatment difference under piece-rate incentives. For men, stress does not affect output under competition or under piece rate. The gender gap in willingness to compete is not affected by stress, but stress decreases competitiveness overall, which is related to performance for women. Our results could explain gender differences in performance under competition, with implications for hiring practices and incentive structures in firms. This paper was accepted by Axel Ockenfels, behavioral economics.

scholarly journals Mitigating the Gender Gap in the Willingness to Compete: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1147-1185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sule Alan ◽  
Seda Ertac
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Future Performance ◽  
Randomized Field Experiment ◽  
Willingness To Compete ◽  
The Impact

Abstract We evaluate the impact on competitiveness of a randomized educational intervention that aims to foster grit, a skill that is highly predictive of achievement. The intervention is implemented in elementary schools, and we measure its impact using a dynamic competition task with interim performance feedback. We find that when children are exposed to a worldview that emphasizes the role of effort in achievement and encourages perseverance, the gender gap in the willingness to compete disappears. We show that the elimination of this gap implies significant efficiency gains. We also provide suggestive evidence on a plausible causal mechanism that runs through the positive impact of enhanced grit on girls' optimism about their future performance.

scholarly journals No Gender Difference in Willingness to Compete When Competing against Self

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 136-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coren L. Apicella ◽  
Elif E. Demiral ◽  
Johanna Mollerstrom
Keyword(s):  
Gender Difference ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Market Experiment ◽  
Willingness To Compete

We report on two experiments investigating whether there is a gender difference in the willingness to compete against oneself (self-competition), similar to what is found when competing against others (other-competition). In one laboratory and one online market experiment, involving a total of 1,200 participants, we replicate the gender-gap in willingness to other-compete but find no evidence of a gender difference in the willingness to self-compete. We explore the roles of risk and confidence and suggest that these factors can account for the different findings. Finally, we document that self-competition does no worse than other-competition in terms of performance boosting.

scholarly journals Can Simple Advice Eliminate the Gender Gap in Willingness to Compete?

2021 ◽  
pp. 103777
Author(s):  
Dany Kessel ◽  
Johanna Mollerstrom ◽  
Roel van Veldhuizen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Willingness To Compete
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