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Gender and competition in adolescence: task matters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Anna Dreber ,
Emma von Essen  and
Eva Ranehill
Anna Dreber*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, 113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Emma von Essen*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Stockholm University, Universitetsvägen 10A, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Eva Ranehill*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Zürich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Abstract

We look at gender differences among adolescents in Sweden in preferences for competition, altruism and risk. For competitiveness, we explore two different tasks that differ in associated stereotypes. We find no gender difference in competitiveness when comparing performance under competition to that without competition. We further find that boys and girls are equally likely to self-select into competition in a verbal task, but that boys are significantly more likely to choose to compete in a mathematical task. This gender gap diminishes and becomes non-significant when we control for actual performance, beliefs about relative performance, and risk preferences, or for beliefs only. Girls are also more altruistic and less risk taking than boys.

Keywords

CompetitivenessRisk preferencesAltruismAdolescentsGender differencesExperiment

JEL classification

C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior J16: Economics of Gender • Non-labor Discrimination
Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 154 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-013-9361-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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