Speaker: Jaesun Lee

Date: 12:00-13:00, Tue. 8th, June 2021

Venue: Room 306, Tongji Building A

Abstract: 

Gender stereotypes are believed to exist in certain tasks. We conjecture that such gender stereotypes in tasks can alter gender gap in performance. We run a laboratory experiment with real-effort tasks under the treatments of framing and gender information which can generate and reinforce gender-stereotypical behaviors. We propose two novel gender-oriented tasks: reaction-focused clicking as a male task and memory-focused face-recall as a female task. The clicking task marginally shows a gender difference in the baseline, while female performance is significantly higher in the face-recall. The framing treatment informs subjects about gender difference in performance, and the gender-information treatment makes it salient that they compete against the opposite gender. In clicking, such treatments sharply increase male productivity and deteriorate female productivity, leading to a significant gender gap in performance. However, face-recall performance is little affected by the treatments. This implies that men are more affected by gender stereotype in a male task. Besides, participants experience learning in the clicking task, while the face-recall task involves more fatigue effects over round, which seems greater for men.