Gazes and Numbers: Two Experiments in Strategic Sophistication and Gender Biases
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Series
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Speaker(s)Maria Cubel (University of Bath, United Kingdom)
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FieldOrganizations and Markets
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LocationErasmus University, Theil Building, Room C1-1
Rotterdam -
Date and time
September 23, 2019
12:00 - 13:00
Abstract
There is evidence showing that gender differences in competitiveness depend on the perceived gender-bias of the task to be performed. In this paper, we explore whether gender differences in strategic sophistication also depend on gender stereotypes about strategic interactions. We use two two-person games, both with a weakly dominant strategy: The two-person beauty contest, where strategies are numbers, and the novel "coach game", where strategies are images of eye gazes. We find that males display higher strategic sophistication than females in the first game but not in the second one, which is perceived to be more female friendly by subjects. However, women are underrepresented among top performers in both games.