Men’s overconfidence triggers gender gap at work: Study

While part of the male domination can be attributed to discrimination,the researchers wanted to determine if the underlying causes of such selection issues may go beyond simple conscious discrimination.

They examined how the differences in the way men and women think of themselves and react to incentives may be creating gender differences that lead to leadership gaps,rather than the gap being caused solely by discrimination in the selection process.

They found that men’s tendency to exhibit natural overconfidence in their past performances may attribute to the lack of greater female representation in upper management and executive positions,the BusinessNewsDaily reported.

For their study,published in the Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organization,the researchers conducted two studies in which they found that men were more likely to overestimate their performance and to a higher degree than women.

While there was no gender differential when it comes to lying,there is a significant gender differential when it comes to “honest” overconfidence,the researchers found.

The study suggests an important takeaway for firms: they should consider overconfidence when assessing male candidates’ claims about past performances,the researchers said.

“It’s not just a matter of telling men not to lie – because they honestly believe their performance is 30 per cent better than it really is. Similarly,it’s not as if you can simply tell women they should inflate their own sense of overconfidence to be on par with that of men,” said Professor Ernesto Reuben,who lead the study.