Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 15;16(4):e0249459.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249459. eCollection 2021.

Gender inequality and national gender gaps in overconfidence

Hayk Amirkhanyan  1 , Michał Wiktor Krawczyk  1 , Maciej Wilamowski  1
Affiliations

Gender inequality and national gender gaps in overconfidence

Hayk Amirkhanyan et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Using a large dataset of marathon runners, we estimate country- and gender-specific proxies for overconfidence. Subsequently, we correlate them with a number of indices, including various measures of gender equality. We find that in less gender-equal countries both males and females tend to be more self-confident than in more equal countries. While a substantial gender gap in overconfidence is observed, it only correlates with some sub-indices of gender equality. We conclude that there is likely a weak relationship between OC gender gap and gender inequality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

References

    1. Henrich J, Heine SJ, Norenzayan A. The weirdest people in the world? Behav Brain Sci. 2010;33: 61–83. 10.1017/S0140525X0999152X - DOI - PubMed
    1. Moore DA, Healy PJ. The Trouble With Overconfidence. Psychol Rev. 2008;115: 502–517. 10.1037/0033-295X.115.2.502 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Krawczyk M, Wilamowski M. Are We All Overconfident in the Long Run? Evidence from One Million Marathon Participants. J Behav Decis Mak. 2017;30: 719–730. 10.1002/bdm.1984 - DOI
    1. Bengtsson C, Persson M, Willenhag P. Gender and overconfidence. Econ Lett. 2005;86: 199–203. 10.1016/j.econlet.2004.07.012 - DOI
    1. Krawczyk M. To answer or not to answer? A field test of loss aversion. Work Pap. 2011.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources