The Boy Crisis: Experimental Evidence on the Acceptance of Males Falling Behind

Alexander Cappelen, Ranveig Falch and Bertil Tungodden

No 2019-014, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: The "boy crisis" prompts the question of whether people interpret inequalities differently depending on whether males or females are lagging behind. We study this question in a novel large-scale distributive experiment involving more than 5,000 Americans. Our data provide strong evidence of a gender bias against low-performing males, particularly among female participants. A large set of additional treatments establishes that the gender bias reflects statistical fairness discrimination. The study provides novel evidence on the nature of discrimination and on how males falling behind are perceived by society.

Keywords: gender bias; boy crisis; statistical fairness discrimination; large-scale experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: FI, IP
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Cappel ... _2019_boy-crisis.pdf First version, March 1, 2019 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Boy Crisis: Experimental Evidence on the Acceptance of Males Falling Behind (2019)
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