Gender gap in apologies

Last registered on February 16, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Gender gap in apologies
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013029
Initial registration date
February 13, 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
February 16, 2024, 3:47 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Lily Liu
Affiliation
Stanford University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Marshall Mo
PI Affiliation
Stanford University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-02-14
End date
2024-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project studies the gender gap in apologies and its consequences in the labor market. We hypothesize that women are more likely to apologize relative to men with similar performances. Apologies could be seen as a signal of incompetence which might hold women back in the labor market. We first document whether women apologize more frequently in a controlled setting and explore the reasons behind the gender apology gap. Second, we study whether employers infer lower ability from apologies and therefore promote women less. This project proposes a novel explanation of the gender promotion gap and suggests potential interventions to address this problem.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Liu, Lily and Marshall Mo. 2024. "Gender gap in apologies." AEA RCT Registry. February 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13029-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-02-14
Intervention End Date
2024-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Apology messages from the worker experiment and promotion decisions from the employer experiment
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Beliefs and predictions from workers and employers
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will recruit a gender-balanced sample of respondents from Prolific, who will be randomly assigned to the roles of "worker" or "employer."
Experimental Design Details
Baseline: The baseline consists of a worker experiment and an employer experiment.
In the worker experiment, workers will perform a task for their employers. The employers' payoffs will depend on the workers' performance, and the more questions workers answer correctly, the more likely the employer will get a high payment. Both workers and employers will observe the task outcome - the employer's payment. Then workers are informed that employers will later make a promotion decision based on employers' perceived performance of the workers. Workers will have the option to send a message to their employer, expressing the extent to which they apologize for the outcome.
In the employer experiment, employers will decide whether to promote the workers after learning about the task outcome and seeing the apology message. Employers are given the incentive to promote workers based on the perceived performance of the workers.

Non-strategic treatment: The non-strategic treatment arm tests for the gender apology gap when workers have no strategic reason to apologize. Here, we remove the promotion stage in the worker experiment. Since the apology messages will not affect workers' payment from the employer, the results will show the gender apology gap under no material incentives. In the employer experiment, we will ask employers to evaluate workers' performance given the task outcome and the apology message.
Randomization Method
Randomization is done by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The design is not clustered.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to recruit 1000 workers and 400 employers in total.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Baseline and non-strategic treatment each has 500 workers and 200 employers.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Stanford University
IRB Approval Date
2022-10-28
IRB Approval Number
42264
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials