Effects of failure in a high-stakes application procedure on confidence in abilities and willingness to compete

Using the central application procedure for places in the medical fields in Germany, we study how the (non-)assigment of a study place through this procedure influences ability beliefs and the willingness to compete in an application-relevant ability domain. Medical studies are some of the most prestigious study fields in Germany. Each year, only about 1 out of 6 applicants receives a study place.

In particular, we ask the following questions: (i) How does failure (relative to success) in the application procedure influence the willingness to compete in an application-related ability test? (ii) How does failure (relative to success) in the application procedure influence absolute and relative confidence in application-related abilities? (iii) Is there a gender difference in willingness to compete and in confidence? Does failure in the application procedure (relative to success) have heterogeneous effects on the willingness to compete and confidence by gender, ability, and famility background? (iv) Does positive/negative feedback about the ability test have heterogeneous effects on willingness to compete by gender, application success/failure, and the gender–application success/failure interaction?

2022-06-23

2022-10-31

Competition entry
Absolute confidence: belief about number of correct items
Relative confidence: belief about relative performance
Competition entry after positive, neutral, or negative feedback

Performance in application-related ability test
Intention to re-apply
Self-reported competitiveness
Self-reported willingness to take risks
Goal setting for medical occupations that differ in their status and gender-dominance

About 3850 individuals will be invited to participate in both survey waves before and after learning the outcome of their application for a study place in medical studies and about 3850 will be invited to participate only in the survey wave taking place after learning the outcome. We expect a response rate of about 65% each, amounting to about 2500 individuals in each group. The survey is conducted in cooperation with the Studierendenauswahl-Verbund (stav). They send out invitations to participate in the survey containing individualized links. The polling is managed by the research team and hosted by the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, who collect the data via LimeSurvey. We guarantee full anonymity to our survey participants who answer the survey questions autonomously on their own digital devices. We ask for permission to recontact them and collect their e-mail addresses to do so. We also collect their bank and/or PayPal information to send them the participation rewards. Randomization is carried out using the survey software LimeSurvey at the individual level.

Our experiment is structured as follows:

Subjects will conduct the experiment via an online platform. Subjects will be randomly assigned to one of three feedback groups, and each subject takes decisions in four consecutive stages.

Stage 1: ability test
Stage 2: choice between competition and piece rate
Stage 3: elicitation of confidence in abilities
Stage 4: feedback and opportunity to reverse choice between competition and piece rate

Not available

Randomization is carried out by the survey software LimeSurvey.

at the individual level

No

2,500 in wave 1 and 5,000 in wave 2

2,500 in wave 1 and 5,000 in wave 2

2,500 adults in wave 1 (5,000 in wave 2) aged 17 years and older, approx. 1/3 will be assigned to each of the three feedback groups.