Social Identity and Competitive Behaviour Experimental evidence from East and West Germany

Abstract

We investigate the impact of gender identity on competitive and risk-taking behaviour of women and men in Germany. In a choice experiment, we compare the decision behaviour between individuals whose gender identities have been made salient through priming techniques and a control group of untreated individuals. All participants make choices for a set of 23 binary options of payment schemes for a maze task. This way, they reveal their preferences toward the option attributes (i.e. performance, competitiveness, risk premium, and task difficulty). We conduct an online experiment with a non-standard subject pool of 883 participants recruited through random sampling. The stratification procedure is based on sex, family status and region to allow equally-sized treatment and control groups of men and women, singles and cohabiters, in East and West-Germany. In a pre-experimental questionnaire, we asked additionally for social values toward gender attributes in job and general risk attitudes. First results suggest that women are less risk friendly than men, except when competing against their own gender. Under priming, women choose the risky performance pay option even less often, while the impact on male decisions is small. Men’s competitive behaviour is negatively affected by priming, while the effect on women is ambiguous. Overall, singles and East-German participants are more risk averse than those living with a partner or in West-Germany, respectively.