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  • 2022
  • Working Paper

The Gender Gap in Confidence: Expected But Not Accounted For

By: Christine L. Exley and Kirby Nielsen
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:92
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Abstract

We investigate how the gender gap in confidence affects the views that evaluators (e.g., employers) hold about men and women. If evaluators fail to account for the confidence gap, it may cause overly pessimistic views about women. Alternatively, if evaluators expect and account for the confidence gap, such a detrimental impact may be avoided. We find robust evidence for the former: even when the confidence gap is expected, evaluators fail to account for it. This “contagious” nature of the gap persists across many interventions and types of evaluators. Only a targeted intervention that facilitates Bayesian updating proves (somewhat) effective.

Keywords

Confidence; Experiments; Gender; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Performance Evaluation; Analysis

Citation

Exley, Christine L., and Kirby Nielsen. "The Gender Gap in Confidence: Expected But Not Accounted For." Working Paper, October 2022.
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About The Author

Christine L. Exley

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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More from the Authors

    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    When Do Individuals Give Up Agency? The Role of Decision Avoidance

    By: Holly Dykstra, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    The Gender Minority Gaps in Confidence and Self-Evaluations

    By: Billur Aksoy, Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Beliefs About Giving Across Contexts

    By: Christine L. Exley, John-Henry Pezzuto and Marta Serra-Garcia
More from the Authors
  • When Do Individuals Give Up Agency? The Role of Decision Avoidance By: Holly Dykstra, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle
  • The Gender Minority Gaps in Confidence and Self-Evaluations By: Billur Aksoy, Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler
  • Beliefs About Giving Across Contexts By: Christine L. Exley, John-Henry Pezzuto and Marta Serra-Garcia
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