Overconfidence, Social Groups, and Gender: Evidence from the Lab and Field
35 Pages Posted: 3 Oct 2006
Date Written: April 14, 2007
Abstract
Previous research indicates that economic agents incorrectly believe that they will perform better than others in a variety of environments. This paper investigates whether a similar phenomenon exists for social groups. Students participating in a lab experiment and Scrabble players participating in a tournament revealed their beliefs about their own performances and their friends' performances. On average, the lab and field subjects both show similar levels of confidence in themselves and in their social groups. Behind these similar average levels of confidence lie some striking gender differences. In both the lab and the field, female subjects tend to show greater confidence in their groups than in themselves, while male subjects show greater confidence in themselves than in their groups.
Keywords: laboratory experiment, field experiment, overconfidence, groups, gender
JEL Classification: C90, C93, L0, J16
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Social Comparison and Confidence: When Thinking You're Better than Average Predicts Overconfidence
-
Self Confidence: Intrapersonal Strategies
By Roland Bénabou and Jean Tirole
-
Betting on Own Knowledge: Experimental Test of Overconfidence
-
Overconfidence is a Social Signaling Bias
By Stephen V. Burks, Jeffrey P. Carpenter, ...
-
Paying for Confidence: An Experimental Study of the Demand for Non-Instrumental Information
By Kfir Eliaz and Andrew Schotter
-
Managing Self-Confidence: Theory and Experimental Evidence
By Markus M. Mobius, Muriel Niederle, ...