NEW EVIDENCE THAT AMONG CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS FOUR, BOYS ARE
MORE COMPETITIVE THAN GIRLS
Four year old girls shy away from competition while boys of same age seek the
challenge. What’s more, this gender gap in the tendency to be competitive continues
throughout childhood and adolescence. These are the key results of a large-scale
experiment with more than 1,000 children and teenagers aged between three and 18.
The study by Professor Matthias Sutter and Daniela Rützler, presented at the Royal
Economic Society’s 2011 annual conference, involved two experiments. The younger
children (aged three to eight) took part in a 30m sprint, while older children (aged nine
to 18) faced an easy maths challenge, adding up two-digit numbers.
In both experiments, the children had to choose whether to perform the task individually
or in competition with others. For example, in the maths challenge, children were
offered €0.50 per correct answer when performing individually. But when in competition
with others, winners of a four person tournament were paid €2 for each correct answer
while losers went empty-handed.
Although the girls’ maths performance was just good as the boys’, girls expected to do
much worse: while roughly two in five boys chose the tournament, only one in five girls
did so. Results were similar in the sprint, with girls significantly less likely to want to
compete despite having a similar chance of winning.
These results might provide one reason why men consistently earn more than women
in the workplace. The authors note: ‘To be successful in getting more attractive and
better paid jobs in the modern economy, it is important to face up to the challenge of
competition instead of shying away from it.’
More…
Four year old girls shy away from competition, while boys of same age seek to enter
tournaments. Throughout childhood and adolescence, this gender gap in the
willingness to compete persists. That is the key result of a large-scale experiment with
more than 1,000 children and teenagers, aged between three and 18, conducted by
Matthias Sutter and Daniela Rützler from the University of Innsbruck.
To be successful in labour markets in terms of getting more attractive and better paid
jobs, it is important to face up to the challenge of competition instead of shying away
from it. Gender differences in competitiveness therefore have the potential to explain
unequal labour market outcomes, such as unequal salaries and glass ceilings. Sutter
and Rützler show in an experiment that girls attempt to avoid competitive environments
with a much higher probability than boys.
The two researchers conducted two different experiments in the field. While the
younger children aged three to eight took part in a running task, which incorporated a
30-metre sprint, children aged nine to eighteen performed an easy maths task in which
they were asked to sum two-digit numbers. A common feature of both experiments was
that subjects had to choose whether to perform the task individually or in competition.
In the maths task, the participants were offered a piece rate payment of 50 cents per
correct solution when performing individually. But when choosing competition, winners
of a four person tournament were paid €2 for each correctly solved problem while
losers went away empty-handed.
Although girls’ performance in the maths task was equally good as the boys’
performance, girls expected to do much worse than boys. Moreover, while roughly 40%
of all boys chose the tournament, only half as many girls (20%) opted to enter the
competition.
The findings of the running task mirror the results of the math task. The children had to
choose between individual performance with lower incentives and a two person
competition with double rewards for the winner. Despite similar performance of both
genders, girls were roughly 15 percentage points less likely to compete.
Given the researchers’ findings of a persistent gender gap already from the age of four,
one interesting route for future research is to devise tasks that can be performed with
even younger children to see whether the gender gap in the willingness to compete
emerges in the first four years of life or whether it seems to be determined by nature.
In a follow-up study, Sutter and Rützler are investigating whether different kinds of
affirmative action programmes (such as introducing quotas for girl winners or by giving
girls a headstart in competition) induce girls to compete more, and whether efficiency
does not suffer from these interventions, such as better qualified boys losing out.
ENDS
‘Gender Differences in Competition Emerge Early in Life’ by Matthias Sutter and
Daniela Rützler
Sutter is at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Gothenburg; Rützler is at
the University of Innsbruck
For further information:
Contact Matthias Sutter on +43-512-507-7170 (email: matthias.sutter@uibk.ac.at;
http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/~c40421); Daniela Rützler on +43-699-12255735 or +43512-507-7467 (email: daniela.ruetzler@uibk.ac.at) or RES media consultant Romesh
Vaitilingam on 07768-661095 (email: romesh@vaitilingam.com)