The result of experiments conducted by Stanford sociologists turned out to be depressing: in work and school situations, women are not inferior to men, but only if there is no need to take risks. And in situations associated with risk, they are nervous and, because of anxiety, they miss the chances of success.
A team of sociologists led by doctoral student Susan R. Fisk investigated the impact of anxiety on the behavior of men and women in situations of risk*.
In the first experiment, conducted online with Americans of all ages ranging from 18 to 81 years old, they acted out a brainstorming scenario, a situation in which many of us often find ourselves at work. Moreover, half of the participants were told that the formulation of unsuccessful, worthless ideas is a normal part of brainstorming, and the rest were warned that they would be sharply condemned for useless suggestions. They then measured their level of anxiety. For women who played without the right to make mistakes, it turned out to be 13,6% higher than for those who were “allowed” to make mistakes, but among men there were no such differences. Fisk herself explains this by gender stereotypes, guided by which women professionals are asked stricter. Thus, they know from experience that a mistake will cost them dearly.
In the second experiment, participants took tests of 20 questions, and could or did not place money bets on their own result. If the participant refused the bet, at the end he received a fixed amount (15 dollars). If he made a bet, he could get from 5 to 55 dollars, depending on how much money he bet and with what result he passed the test. Women who agreed to place bets answered the test questions 11% worse than men.
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Finally, the third set of data for the researchers were the results of the engineering student practice test. In the middle of the semester, they were asked how confident they were in their work, and promised to raise their mark if high self-confidence turned out to be justified, and, conversely, lower it even more if, with high confidence, the work was not done very well. Thus, they were placed in a situation of risk, which, however, could be abandoned: for this, it was enough for the student to declare that he was not sure of himself. In the end, the average score that the girls received for their test papers turned out to be 4% lower than the average score of the boys, although in another term paper, which was assessed in the usual way, without introducing a risk factor, this difference was not.
Fisk and her colleagues presented the results of the experiments at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
According to Susan Fisk, anxiety that arises in situations of risk and leads to mistakes or simply hinders success makes it difficult for women to advance in their careers. So far, men have dominated leadership positions. Therefore, Fisk believes that employers should not expose employees to risk when it can be avoided.
“The economy needs innovation and pluralism,” Fisk notes. If reducing risk in decision-making leads people to come up with better ideas and perform better overall, both women and employers will benefit, she says.
* American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2014.