Let's (Not) Talk about Sex: The Effect of Information Provision on Gender Differences in Performance under Competition

Nagore Iriberri and Pedro Rey-Biel

No 583, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: We study how gender differences in performance under competition are affected by the provision of information regarding rival's gender and/or differences in relative ability. In a laboratory experiment, we use two tasks that differ regarding perceptions about which gender outperforms the other. We observe women's underperformance only under two conditions: 1) tasks are perceived as favoring men and 2) rivals' gender is explicitly mentioned. This result can be explained by stereotype-threat being reinforced when explicitly mentioning gender in tasks in which women already consider they are inferior. Omitting information about gender is a safe alternative to avoid women's underperformance in competition.

Keywords: competition; gender differences; feedback information; gender perception; stereotype-threat (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-gth and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Working Paper: Let's (not) talk about sex: The effect of information provision on gender differences in performance under competition (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bge:wpaper:583

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