Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
Department of Management, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Oct 19;118(42). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2108337118.
Research shows that women are less likely to enter competitions than men. This disparity may translate into a gender imbalance in holding leadership positions or ascending in organizations. We provide both laboratory and field experimental evidence that this difference can be attenuated with a default nudge-changing the choice to enter a competitive task from a default in which applicants must actively choose to compete to a default in which applicants are automatically enrolled in competition but can choose to opt out. Changing the default affects the perception of prevailing social norms about gender and competition as well as perceptions of the performance or ability threshold at which to apply. We do not find associated negative effects for performance or wellbeing. These results suggest that organizations could make use of opt-out promotion schemes to reduce the gender gap in competition and support the ascension of women to leadership positions.
研究表明，女性参与竞争的可能性低于男性。这种差距可能会导致领导层或组织内部出现性别失衡的情况。我们提供了实验室和实地实验证据，表明这种差异可以通过默认的推动来缓解——将参与竞争任务的选择从默认的申请人必须主动选择竞争改为默认的申请人自动参加竞争但可以选择退出竞争。改变默认设置会影响对性别和竞争的普遍社会规范的看法，以及对申请的表现或能力门槛的看法。我们没有发现与绩效或幸福感相关的负面影响。这些结果表明，组织可以利用选择退出的晋升计划来减少竞争中的性别差距，支持女性晋升领导层。
