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DO WOMEN SHY AWAY FROM PUBLIC SPEAKING? A FIELD EXPERIMENT

Maria De Paola (m.depaola@unical.it), Rosetta Lombardo (rosetta.lombardo@unical.it), Valeria Pupo (valeria.pupo@unical.it) and Vincenzo Scoppa
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Rosetta Lombardo: Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF, Università della Calabria

Working Papers from Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF

Abstract: Public speaking is an important skill for career prospects and for leadership positions, but many people tend to avoid it because it generates anxiety. We run a field experiment to analyze whether in an incentivized setting men and women show differences in their willingness to speak in public. The experiment involved more than 500 undergraduate students who could gain two points to add to the final grade of their exam by orally presenting solutions to a problem set. Students were randomly assigned to present only to the instructor or in front of a large audience (a class of 100 or more). We find that while women are more willing to present faceto-face, they are considerably less likely to give a public presentation. Female aversion to public speaking does not depend on differences in ability, risk aversion, self-confidence and self-esteem. The aversion to public speaking greatly reduces for daughters of working women. From data obtained through an on-line Survey we also show that neither increasing the gains deriving from public speaking nor allowing participants more time to prepare enable to close the gender gap.

Keywords: Public Speaking; Psychological Gender differences; Gender; Leadership; Glass Ceiling; Field Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2020-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hrm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://www.ecostat.unical.it/RePEc/WorkingPapers/WP01_2020.pdf First version, 2020-02 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Do Women Shy Away from Public Speaking? A Field Experiment (2021) Downloads
Working Paper: Do Women Shy Away from Public Speaking? A Field Experiment (2020) Downloads
Working Paper: Do Women Shy Away from Public Speaking? A Field Experiment (2020) Downloads
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:clb:wpaper:202001

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