Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Exploring gender differences in effort before competition

DRMS 博士论文研究：探索赛前努力的性别差异

• 批准号: 2049764
• 负责人: Coren Apicella
• 金额: $ 1.91万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-15 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2049764&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; DRMS; Exploring

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Competitions are increasingly prevalent in the global labor market, where winners are disproportionately rewarded. Prior work has suggested that gender differences in competitiveness, with women being less competitive, on average, than men, may contribute to persistent gender disparities in labor market outcomes. As a result, much of the research on gender differences in competitions has focused on i) understanding the sources of the gender difference and ii) designing interventions to encourage women to compete more. Less consideration, however, has been paid to whether and how women and men may differently respond to competitions. Because past research suggests that women are less confident and more risk-averse than men, and this may, in part, explain their reluctance to compete, women may spend more time preparing for competitions when they do compete. The first aim of this research is to examine whether women spend more time than men preparing for tasks where their performance will be evaluated, and specifically, when their performance is being evaluated against a competitor. The second aim of this dissertation is to test whether beliefs about gender differences in performance on a task, which have previously been shown to affect confidence and performance, also affect gender differences in preparation before competition. Experiments are conducted using an online marketplace, where participants are paid for their performance on various tasks. Understanding how individuals respond to competitive situations may help address economic disparities across groups, including persistent gender differences in labor market outcomes. If, for instance, competitions exacerbate gender differences in the amount of effort exerted (i.e., preparing) before performance, this may affect women’s labor output, career advancement, their ability to achieve a satisfying work-life balance, and even their decision to enter or stay in competitive environments. As this is a new area of research, there are many promising and exciting avenues for future exploration, all of which have the potential to inform policies that promote greater gender equality.The researchers hypothesize that women will spend more time preparing than men, especially before competitions, in part because they are, on average, less risk-seeking and confident than men. We will also test boundary conditions of the anticipated interaction by examining how beliefs about gender differences in performance shape decisions to prepare before competitions. The researchers experimentally test these hypotheses in an online marketplace where participant performance on the task is incentivized. In the first experiment they manipulate whether participants will be paid according to a competitive payment scheme (i.e., incentives for their performance are higher, but they must outperform another individual in the study to earn anything for their performance) or a non-competitive payment scheme (i.e., incentives for their performance are guaranteed, but lower). Participants will have the option to complete an unlimited amount of practice problems that closely resemble the incentivized task before entering the incentivized stage of the study. In the second experiment, they manipulate participants’ beliefs about gender differences in performance on a task under a competitive payment scheme. Specifically, participants are randomly assigned to learn about results from a scientific article that either i) point to a male advantage or ii) point to a female advantage on the task. Similar to the first experiment, participants have the option to complete an unlimited amount of practice problems before moving on to the competition. Across both studies, the main dependent variable of interest is amount of time spent preparing for the incentivized task. It is predicted that women will choose to prepare more than men before a competition, especially when they are led to believe that males may have a performance advantage. The proposed work will advance knowledge by providing the foundation for a fruitful line of work focused on how men and women differently respond to competitions, and its possible economic ramifications for women.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项是根据2021年《美国救援计划法》的全部或部分资助的（公共法117-2）。在全球劳动力市场中，竞争越来越普遍，在全球劳动力市场中，获奖者的奖励不成比例。先前的工作表明，竞争性的性别差异，女性平均而言，竞争力较低，而男性可能会导致劳动力市场成果中持续的性别差异。结果，关于竞争性别差异的许多研究都集中在i）了解性别差异的来源和ii）设计干预措施以鼓励女性竞争更多。但是，对男女是否以及如何对竞争做出不同的反应，较少考虑的考虑因素。由于过去的研究表明，女性比男性更自信，更容易风险，这可能部分解释了她们不愿竞争的情况，因此，妇女可能会在竞争时花费更多的时间为比赛做准备。这项研究的第一个目的是检查女性是否花费时间比为评估表现的任务做准备的时间多，尤其是在针对竞争对手评估其表现时。本论文的第二个目的是测试对任务绩效性别差异的信念，这些信念先前已被证明会影响信心和表现，还会影响竞争前准备的性别差异。实验是使用在线市场进行的，其中参与者在各种任务上的表现付费。了解个人如何应对竞争情况可能有助于解决跨群体之间的经济差异，包括劳动力市场成果的持续性别差异。例如，如果竞争加剧了在表现前施加的努力（即准备）的性别差异，则这可能会影响妇女的劳动力，职业发展，实现令人满意的工作生活平衡的能力，甚至他们的决定进入或留在竞争环境中。由于这是一个新的研究领域，因此有许多诺言和令人兴奋的途径用于未来的探索，所有这些都有可能告知促进性别平等更大的政策。研究人员假设，女性将花费比男性的时间更多的时间，尤其是在比赛之前，部分原因是，它们平均而言是平均而言，比男性更少，风险较低和自信。我们还将通过研究如何相信绩效形状决策中的性别差异来测试预期互动的边界条件。研究人员在在线市场中测试了这些假设，在线市场中，参与者在任务上的表现受到激励。在第一个实验中，他们操纵是否会根据竞争性付款计划支付参与者（即，其表现的激励措施较高，但他们必须胜过研究中的另一个人以赚取其绩效的任何东西）或非竞争性付款计划（即，保证其绩效的激励措施，但保证了他们的绩效，但较低）。参与者将可以选择在进入研究阶段之前，完成无限量的实践问题，这些问题与激励任务非常相似。在第二个实验中，他们操纵参与者对竞争性付款计划下任务的性别差异的信念。具体来说，参与者被随机分配，以了解科学文章中的结果，即i）指向男性优势或ii）指向女性在任务上的优势。与第一个实验类似，参与者可以选择在进行比赛之前完成无限量的练习问题。在这两项研究中，关注的主要因变量是准备激励任务花费的时间。据预测，女性会选择比男性在比赛前选择更多的准备，尤其是当他们被认为男性可能具有表现优势时。拟议的工作将通过为男女如何应对竞争的反应及其对妇女的经济后果的反应方式提供卓有成效的工作来提高知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准通过评估来获得支持的。