Competition in Creative Tasks, Gender Gaps and the Mitigating Role of AI: Experimental Evidence

Federico Atzori, Luca Corazzini, Valeria Maggian, Filippo Pavesi and Massimo Scotti
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Federico Atzori: Sapienza University
Luca Corazzini: University of Milan - Bicocca
Filippo Pavesi: LIUC University
Massimo Scotti: LIUC University

No 2026: 25, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari"

Abstract: We examine gender differences in competitiveness when performance depends on creativity, which is central to many high-skilled jobs, and investigate how generative AI may affect them. Our study is based on a laboratory experiment in which participants complete a creative task and then choose whether to enter a tournament compensation scheme, with access to ChatGPT varying across treatments. While men and women achieve similar levels of creative performance, they differ in competition entry, with women displaying a lower willingness to compete in environments without AI assistance. This gender gap in competition becomes smaller when AI is available. To investigate the mechanisms behind this pattern, we construct a measure of underconfidence based on the difference between participants’ beliefs about their relative performance and their actual rank. We show that underconfidence predicts competition entry and that, besides improving creative performance, AI is associated with lower underconfidence, particularly among women.

Keywords: Gender Gap in Competition; Creativity; Generative AI; Laboratory Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 J16 J24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2026
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