Stereotypes are Only a Threat when Beliefs are Reinforced: On the Sensitivity of Gender Differences in Performance under Competition to Information Provision

Nagore Iriberri and Pedro Rey-Biel

No 880, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: We show that the existence of gender differences in performance is highly sensitive to the task used to measure performance, to existing stereotypes and to informational conditions. Out of sixteen purposely designed treatments we find that women underperform when competing only when two conditions are met: 1) the task used is perceived as favoring men and 2) the presence of a rival is strongly primed through information provided before competing. Such sensitivity sheds light on the contradictory evidence found on stereotype-threat causing gender differences in performance under competition.

Keywords: competition; gender differences; gender perception; stereotype-threat; beliefs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-02
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://bw.bse.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/880-file.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Stereotypes are only a threat when beliefs are reinforced: On the sensitivity of gender differences in performance under competition to information provision (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bge:wpaper:880

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bruno Guallar ().