Do Women Have More Shame than Men? An Experiment on Self-Assessment and the Shame of Overestimating Oneself

Sandra Ludwig and Carmen Thoma

Discussion Papers in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics

Abstract: We analyze how subjects’ self-assessment depends on whether its accuracy is observable to others. We find that women downgrade their selfassessment given observability while men do not. Women avoid the shame they may have if others observe that they overestimated themselves. Men, however, do not seem to be similarly shame-averse. This gender difference may be due to different societal expectations: While we find that men are expected to be overconfident, women are not. Shame-aversion may explain recent findings that women shy away from competition, demanding jobs and wage negotiations, as entering these situations is a statement to be confident of one’s ability.

Keywords: Gender; Shame; Self-confidence; Overconfidence; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Do women have more shame than men? An experiment on self-assessment and the shame of overestimating oneself (2017)
Working Paper: Do women have more shame than men? An experiment on self-assessment and the shame of overestimating oneself (2017)
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