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Domain specificity of sex differences in competition

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  • Wieland, Alice
  • Sarin, Rakesh

Abstract

There has been much recent literature about sex differences in competition, mostly noting that women are innately less competitive than men (Croson and Gneezy, 2009). This article examines the hypothesis that sex differences in propensity to compete are domain specific. We conducted a 2 (sex)×4 (domain) experiment with 434 participants examining competition decisions, familiarity with the domain, and performance. We find no overall sex differences in rates of competition when collapsing across all four domains, but do find sex differences in rates of competition for individual domains. Additionally we examined the importance of winning at competition on self-esteem using the Contingencies of Self-Worth, Competition subscale (Crocker et al., 2003) and find that the subscale fully mediates the effect of sex on the strength of competitive pay preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Wieland, Alice & Sarin, Rakesh, 2012. "Domain specificity of sex differences in competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 151-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:83:y:2012:i:1:p:151-157
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.06.019
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Muriel Niederle & Lise Vesterlund, 2007. "Do Women Shy Away From Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1067-1101.
    2. repec:cup:judgdm:v:5:y:2010:i:5:p:411-419 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Uri Gneezy & Aldo Rustichini, 2004. "Gender and Competition at a Young Age," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 377-381, May.
    4. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    5. Uri Gneezy & Kenneth L. Leonard & John A. List, 2009. "Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence From a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(5), pages 1637-1664, September.
    6. Paolacci, Gabriele & Chandler, Jesse & Ipeirotis, Panagiotis G., 2010. "Running experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk," Judgment and Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(5), pages 411-419, August.
    7. Uri Gneezy & Muriel Niederle & Aldo Rustichini, 2003. "Performance in Competitive Environments: Gender Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 1049-1074.
    8. Vandegrift, Donald & Yavas, Abdullah, 2009. "Men, women, and competition: An experimental test of behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 554-570, October.
    9. repec:cup:judgdm:v:5:y:2010:i:3:p:159-163 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Heath, Chip & Tversky, Amos, 1991. "Preference and Belief: Ambiguity and Competence in Choice under Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 5-28, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Michael A. Leeds & Eva Marikova Leeds, 2024. "I’ll Take Gender Differences for $400: Using Jeopardy! to Analyze Attitudes Toward Risk," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 374-399, June.
    2. Claussen, Jörg & Czibor, Eszter & van Praag, Mirjam C., 2015. "Women Do Not Play Their Aces: The Consequences of Shying Away," IZA Discussion Papers 9612, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Baier, Alexandra & Davis, Brent & Jaber-Lopez, Tarek, 2024. "Gender, choice of task, and the effect of feedback on competition: An experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. repec:cup:judgdm:v:9:y:2014:i:6:p:558-571 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Yinjunjie Zhang & Zhicheng Xu & Marco A Palma, 2019. "Conveniently dependent or naively overconfident? An experimental study on the reaction to external help," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Dato, Simon & Nieken, Petra, 2014. "Gender differences in competition and sabotage," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 64-80.
    7. Alice Wieland & James Sundali & Markus Kemmelmeier & Rakesh Sarin, 2014. "Gender differences in the endowment effect: Women pay less, but won't accept less," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 9(6), pages 558-571, November.
    8. Iriberri, Nagore & Rey-Biel, Pedro, 2017. "Stereotypes are only a threat when beliefs are reinforced: On the sensitivity of gender differences in performance under competition to information provision," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 99-111.
    9. Mohan, Nancy, 2014. "A review of the gender effect on pay, corporate performance and entry into top management," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 41-51.
    10. Sarin, Rakesh & Wieland, Alice, 2016. "Risk aversion for decisions under uncertainty: Are there gender differences?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-8.
    11. Bakir, Aysen & Gentina, Elodie & de Araújo Gil, Luciana, 2020. "What shapes adolescents’ attitudes toward luxury brands? The role of self-worth, self-construal, gender and national culture," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender differences; Sex differences; Competition; Risk; Decision-making;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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