IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/harjfk/rwp12-009.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint versus Separate Evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Bohnet, Iris

    (Harvard University)

  • van Geen, Alexandra

    (Harvard University)

  • Bazerman, Max H.

Abstract

We examine a new intervention to overcome gender biases in hiring, promotion, and job assignments: an "evaluation nudge," in which people are evaluated jointly rather than separately regarding their future performance. Evaluators are more likely to focus on individual performance in joint than in separate evaluation and on group stereotypes in separate than in joint evaluation, making joint evaluation the money-maximizing evaluation procedure. Our findings are compatible with a behavioral model of information processing and with the System 1/System 2 distinction in behavioral decision research where people have two distinct modes of thinking that are activated under certain conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Bohnet, Iris & van Geen, Alexandra & Bazerman, Max H., 2012. "When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint versus Separate Evaluation," Working Paper Series rwp12-009, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
  • Handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=8301&type=WPN
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker, Gary S., 1978. "The Economic Approach to Human Behavior," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226041124, January.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2010. "Dynamics of the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Financial and Corporate Sectors," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 228-255, July.
    3. Marianne Bertrand & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "The Gender Gap in Top Corporate Jobs," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(1), pages 3-21, October.
    4. Manuel F. Bagues & Berta Esteve-Volart, 2010. "Can Gender Parity Break the Glass Ceiling? Evidence from a Repeated Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(4), pages 1301-1328.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Dolly Chugh & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2005. "Implicit Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 94-98, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hobman, Elizabeth V. & Frederiks, Elisha R. & Stenner, Karen & Meikle, Sarah, 2016. "Uptake and usage of cost-reflective electricity pricing: Insights from psychology and behavioural economics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 455-467.
    2. Goodall, Amanda H. & Osterloh, Margit, 2015. "Women Have to Enter the Leadership Race to Win: Using Random Selection to Increase the Supply of Women into Senior Positions," IZA Discussion Papers 9331, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Bergers, Dominic & Faßnacht, Martin, 2017. "Debiasing Strategies in the Price Management Process," Marketing Review St.Gallen, Universität St.Gallen, Institut für Marketing und Customer Insight, vol. 34(6), pages 50-58.
    4. Heinz, Matthias & Normann, Hans-Theo & Rau, Holger A., 2016. "How competitiveness may cause a gender wage gap: Experimental evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 336-349.
    5. Heinz, Matthias & Normann, Hans-Theo & Rau, Holger A., 2016. "How competitiveness may cause a gender wage gap: Experimental evidence," DICE Discussion Papers 213, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    6. Alexia Gaudeul & Ayu Okvitawanli & Marian Panganiban, 2015. "Does the gender mix among employers influence who gets hired? A labor market experiment," Jena Economics Research Papers 2015-007, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bazerman, Max H. & Bohnet, Iris & Van Geen, Alexandra Vivien, 2012. "When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint Versus Separate Evaluation," Scholarly Articles 8506867, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    2. Bosquet, Clément & Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia, 2013. "Gender and competition: evidence from academic promotions in France," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58350, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Jose Apesteguia & Ghazala Azmat & Nagore Iriberri, 2012. "The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Performance and Decision Making: Evidence from the Field," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(1), pages 78-93, January.
    4. Stefano Gagliarducci & M. Daniele Paserman, 2012. "Gender Interactions within Hierarchies: Evidence from the Political Arena," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 1021-1052.
    5. Clément Bosquet & Pierre‐Philippe Combes & Cecilia García‐Peñalosa, 2019. "Gender and Promotions: Evidence from Academic Economists in France," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(3), pages 1020-1053, July.
    6. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi & Stefan Ruenzi, 2019. "Sex Matters: Gender Bias in the Mutual Fund Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(7), pages 3001-3025, July.
    7. Iris Bohnet & Alexandra van Geen & Max Bazerman, 2016. "When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint vs. Separate Evaluation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1225-1234, May.
    8. Sergio Scicchitano, 2014. "The gender wage gap among Spanish managers," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(3), pages 327-344, May.
    9. Fang,Sheng & Goh,Chorching & Roberts,Mark & Xu,L. Colin & Zeufack,Albert G., 2020. "Female Business Leaders, Business and Cultural Environment, and Productivity around the World," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9275, The World Bank.
    10. Lalanne, Marie & Seabright, Paul, 2011. "The Old Boy Network: Gender Differences in the Impact of Social Networks on Remuneration in Top Executive Jobs," IDEI Working Papers 689, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    11. Lalanne, Marie & Seabright, Paul, 2016. "The old boy network: The impact of professional networks on remuneration in top executive jobs," SAFE Working Paper Series 123, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    12. Stefanie Schurer & Daniel Kuehnle & Anthony Scott & Terence C. Cheng, 2016. "A Man's Blessing or a Woman's Curse? The Family Earnings Gap of Doctors," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 385-414, July.
    13. Ina Ganguli & Ricardo Hausmann & Martina Viarengo, 2021. "Gender Differences in Professional Career Dynamics: New Evidence from a Global Law Firm," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 105-128, January.
    14. Ayllón, Sara, 2022. "Online teaching and gender bias," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3k0m7r593p8gs9njjtpupmlknu is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Booth, Alison L., 2009. "Gender and competition," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 599-606, December.
    17. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo, 2016. "Field Experiments on Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 22014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Dobbie Will & Fryer, Jr. Roland G., 2015. "The Impact of Voluntary Youth Service on Future Outcomes: Evidence from Teach For America," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(3), pages 1031-1065, July.
    19. Andrew Ellul & Marco Pagano & Annalisa Scognamiglio, 2020. "Career Risk and Market Discipline in Asset Management," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 783-828.
    20. Francesconi, Marco & Parey, Matthias, 2018. "Early gender gaps among university graduates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 63-82.
    21. Farré, Lídia & Ortega, Francesc, 2021. "Family Ties, Geographic Mobility and the Gender Gap in Academic Aspirations," IZA Discussion Papers 14561, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ksharus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.