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Do Overconfident Workers Cooperate Less? The Relationship between Overconfidence and Cooperation in Team Production

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  • Vanessa Mertins

    (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EU, University of Trier)

  • Wolfgang Hoffeld

    (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EU, University of Trier)

Abstract

The tendency to underestimate others’ relative performance compared to one’s own is widespread among individuals in all work environments. We examine the relationship between, and the driving forces behind, individual overconfidence and voluntary cooperation in team production. Our experimental data suggest an indirect and gender-specific link: Overconfident men hold more optimistic beliefs about coworkers’ cooperativeness than men who lack confidence, and are accordingly significantly more cooperative, whereas overconfidence, beliefs, and cooperativeness are not correlated in women.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanessa Mertins & Wolfgang Hoffeld, 2013. "Do Overconfident Workers Cooperate Less? The Relationship between Overconfidence and Cooperation in Team Production," IAAEU Discussion Papers 201313, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    • Handle: RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201313
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mantilla, Cesar & Murad, Zahra, 2020. "Ego-relevance in team production," SocArXiv zy248, Center for Open Science.
    2. Hendrik Hakenes & Svetlana Katolnik, 2018. "Optimal Team Size and Overconfidence," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 665-687, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    team production; public good; experiment; real effort; cooperation; gender; overconfidence; belief;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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