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Gender Differences in Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Competitive Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Carpenter, Jeffrey P.

    (Middlebury College)

  • Frank, Rachel

    (Yale Law School)

  • Huet-Vaughn, Emiliano

    (Pomona College)

Abstract
Gender differences in competitive behavior have been well documented by economists and other social scientists; however, the bulk of the research addresses competition with others and excludes other economically relevant competition that may contribute to the gender pay gap. In this paper, we ask: How does gender affect how individuals react to competition against themselves? In a laboratory experiment in which some subjects compete against others and some compete against themselves, we find women select into intrapersonal competition at significantly higher rates than interpersonal competition, the first such findings. We find perseverance or "grit" to be a poor predictor of interpersonal competition selection, but find familial effects such as parent's education and number of brothers to be correlated with competition selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Carpenter, Jeffrey P. & Frank, Rachel & Huet-Vaughn, Emiliano, 2017. "Gender Differences in Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Competitive Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 10626, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10626
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    Cited by:

    1. Catherine Eckel & Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Nina Xue, 2021. "The gender leadership gap: insights from experiments," Chapters, in: Ananish Chaudhuri (ed.), A Research Agenda for Experimental Economics, chapter 7, pages 137-162, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Kessel, Dany & Mollerstrom, Johanna & van Veldhuizen, Roel, 2021. "Can simple advice eliminate the gender gap in willingness to compete?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 138, pages 1-1.
    3. Buser, Thomas & van den Assem, Martijn J. & van Dolder, Dennie, 2023. "Gender and willingness to compete for high stakes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 350-370.
    4. Charness, Gary & Dao, Lien & Shurchkov, Olga, 2022. "Competing now and then: The effects of delay on competitiveness across gender," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 612-630.
    5. Stephan Puehringer & Theresa Hager, 2023. "Gendered Competitive Practices in Economics. A Multi-Layer Model of Womens Underrepresentation," ICAE Working Papers 148, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    6. Stefano Piasenti & Müge Süer, 2024. "Predictive Power of Biological Sex and Gender Identity on Economic Behavior," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 513, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    7. Demiral, Elif E. & Mollerstrom, Johanna, 2024. "Competitiveness and Employability," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    8. Irene Comeig & Ainhoa Jaramillo-Gutiérrez & Federico Ramírez, 2017. "Toward Value Co-Creation: Increasing Women’s Presence in Management Positions through Competition against a Set Target," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-10, October.
    9. Apicella, Coren L. & Demiral, Elif E. & Mollerstrom, Johanna, 2020. "Compete with others? No, thanks. With myself? Yes, please!," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    10. Stephan Puehringer & Georg Wolfmayr, 2023. "Competitive Performativity of (Academic) Social Networks. The subjectivation of Competition on ResearchGate, Google Scholar and Twitter," ICAE Working Papers 150, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor; real effort; tournament; competition; gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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