Is the evaluation of performance gender specific? Evidence from two large experimental studies

Axel Franzen and Fabienne Wöhner

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: It is often assumed that women receive less recognition than men for the same work or performance. We test this assumption via two large-scale online-survey experiments involving 3,157 (Study I) and 2,909 (Study II) respondents respectively. In both studies, subjects watched a two-minute video in which either a female or a male character presented either a male-associated topic, a gender-neutral topic, or a female-associated topic. Since former research suggests that the attractiveness of the presenter increases performance evaluations, we also varied the attractiveness of the presenting characters. Study I uses a 2 (gender) by 2 (attractiveness) by 3 (topic) design. The video presentations were created using an artificial intelligence video-maker that used human-like avatars. In Study II, the presentations were conducted by real humans. The findings from both studies suggest that gender has no influence on how respondents evaluate presentations. Additionally, in Study I we find that attractive male avatar presenters receive more favorable evaluations than less attractive males. In contrast, female avatar presenters do not receive an attractiveness bonus. However, when using real humans instead of avatars we did not find this attractiveness bonus for men.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0336066

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0336066

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