Psychological Momentum and Gender

32 Pages Posted: 4 Apr 2016

See all articles by Danny Cohen-Zada

Danny Cohen-Zada

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Department of Economics

Alex Krumer

University of St. Gallen

Ze'ev Shtudiner

Ariel University - Department of Economics

Abstract

We exploit a natural experiment in which two professionals compete in a one-stage contest without strategic motives and where one contestant has a clear exogenous psychological momentum advantage over the other in order to estimate the causal effect of psychological momentum on performance. We find that men's performance is significantly affected by psychological momentum, while women's is not. This result is robust to different specifications and estimation strategies. Our results are in line with evidence in the biological literature that testosterone, which is known to enhance performance of both men and women, commonly increases following victory and decreases following loss only among men. Implications of our findings for contest design are also discussed.

Keywords: psychological momentum, contest, gender differences, performance

JEL Classification: J16, J24, L83

Suggested Citation

Cohen-Zada, Danny and Krumer, Alex and Shtudiner, Ze'ev, Psychological Momentum and Gender. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9845, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2757955 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2757955

Danny Cohen-Zada (Contact Author)

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Department of Economics ( email )

Beer-Sheva 84105
Israel

Alex Krumer

University of St. Gallen ( email )

St. Gallen
Switzerland

Ze'ev Shtudiner

Ariel University - Department of Economics ( email )

Ariel, 40300
Israel

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