Closing the Gender Gap in Willingness to Contribute Ideas: A Lean-in Intervention

Last registered on January 31, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Closing the Gender Gap in Willingness to Contribute Ideas: A Lean-in Intervention
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012775
Initial registration date
January 25, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 31, 2024, 11:45 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Yu-Hsin Ho
Affiliation
National Taiwan University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Josie I Chen
PI Affiliation
National Taiwan University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-01-26
End date
2024-08-31
Keywords
Behavior, Gender, Lab
Additional Keywords
stereotypes, lean-in, willingness to contribute ideas, nudge
JEL code(s)
C91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study the gender gap in willingness to contribute ideas and a potential fix to its corresponding welfare losses. Past studies have shown that people are less confident in topics that are stereotypically incompatible with their gender and hence report less willingness to contribute their answers in group decision-making tasks. This leads to a degraded group performance due to valuable ideas not being elicited. In a lab experiment, we introduce an intervention that prioritizes the answer given by a specific gender while allowing agents to actively opt out of such prioritization. We hypothesize that this soft lean-in intervention encourages high-ability men and women to contribute more in stereotypically incompatible domains and improves group performance.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chen, Josie I and Yu-Hsin Ho. 2024. "Closing the Gender Gap in Willingness to Contribute Ideas: A Lean-in Intervention." AEA RCT Registry. January 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12775-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Subjects are randomly assigned to a mixed-gender group of two. Each group belongs to one of three treatment arms: "control", "male lean-in", and "female lean-in".
Intervention Start Date
2024-01-26
Intervention End Date
2024-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
willingness to contribute ideas: the participant's subjective willingness to contribute her answer to a question as her group's answer.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
- objective ability
- subjective confidence
- questions' perceived type of gender
- self-promotion cost
- peer review evaluations
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
- We measure the participant's objective ability, subjective confidence, and perceived types of gender in different questions.
- We randomize each subject into a mixed-gender group of two. Each group belongs to one of three treatment arms: "control", "male lean-in", or "female lean-in".
- We measure the participant's willingness to contribute her answer as the group answer using the task proposed by Coffman (2014).
- Treatment arms differ by whether the participant's choice of contribution is treated as-is or artificially leaned in.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
We randomly assign 15 sessions to 3 treatment arms. (5 sessions for each treatment)
Randomization Unit
Treatments are randomized by experimental sessions.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
15 sessions
Sample size: planned number of observations
15 sessions * 10 participants per session * 25 rounds of task
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
- 5 sessions control (50 individuals)
- 5 sessions male lean-in (50 individuals)
- 5 sessions female lean-in (50 individuals)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
The unit of observation is a round of the main task (Stage 2). We assume the standard deviation of the selected contribution position (main outcome) is 1.15. Under a 95% confidence level, 80% of statistical power, the minimum detectable mean difference between treatment arms is 0.41. (Cohen's d = 0.36)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Research Ethics Committee, National Taiwan University
IRB Approval Date
2024-01-17
IRB Approval Number
202311HS025
Analysis Plan

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information