The Gender Gap in Confidence: Expected but Not Accounted For

Christine L. Exley and Kirby Nielsen

American Economic Review, 2024, vol. 114, issue 3, 851-85

Abstract: We investigate how the gender gap in confidence affects the views that evaluators (e.g., employers) hold about men and women. We find the confidence gap is contagious, causing evaluators to form overly pessimistic beliefs about women. This result arises even though the confidence gap is expected and even though the confidence gap shouldn't be contagious if evaluators are Bayesian. Only an intervention that facilitates Bayesian updating proves (somewhat) effective. Additional results highlight how similar findings follow even when there is no room for discriminatory motives or differences in priors because evaluators are asked about arbitrary, rather than gender-specific, groups.

JEL-codes: D82 D83 D91 J16 J22 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20221413

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