Gender and competition in adolescence: task matters
(2014) In Experimental Economics 17(1). p.154-172- 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... (More)
- 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/03386754-a89e-4481-a688-d051c108b726
- author
- Dreber, Anna ; von Essen, Emma and Ranehill, Eva LU
- publishing date
- 2014-03
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Competitiveness, Risk preferences, Altruism, Adolescents, Gender differences, Experiment, C91, J16
- in
- Experimental Economics
- volume
- 17
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 154 - 172
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84895900959
- ISSN
- 1573-6938
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10683-013-9361-0
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 03386754-a89e-4481-a688-d051c108b726
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-04 11:14:12
- date last changed
- 2025-10-14 10:41:32
@article{03386754-a89e-4481-a688-d051c108b726,
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.}},
author = {{Dreber, Anna and von Essen, Emma and Ranehill, Eva}},
issn = {{1573-6938}},
keywords = {{Competitiveness; Risk preferences; Altruism; Adolescents; Gender differences; Experiment; C91; J16}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{154--172}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Experimental Economics}},
title = {{Gender and competition in adolescence: task matters}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10683-013-9361-0}},
doi = {{10.1007/s10683-013-9361-0}},
volume = {{17}},
year = {{2014}},
}