Gender, choice of task, and the effect of feedback on competition: An experiment

Abstract

We conduct a laboratory experiment to examine gender differences in task choices and competitiveness: Individuals have the option to self-select into one of two stereotypically different tasks and subsequently decide whether or not to engage in competition while receiving one of three different feedback treatments. Compared to a control setting, we study the effect of providing relative performance feedback (rankings), and additionally the effect of providing information about the gender of the competitors. We find a significant gender gap in the choice of the male task, only when presenting the ranking in addition to the gender composition of the group. Turning to the decision to enter competition, we observe that task choice, combined with ranking feedback on performance, reduces the gender gap in competition entry in both tasks compared to the control. The dynamics over treatments reveal that men primarily respond to feedback in the male task, while women respond to feedback in the word task. These findings highlight that gender differences in task choice and competitiveness are contingent on feedback, the underlying task, and the task choice set.