Who is watching? Gender composition of observers and risk-taking

Abstract

We experimentally investigate whether the gender composition of an observing peer group affects individual risk-taking. Participants are randomly assigned to three-person groups differing only in gender composition. They complete an incentivized lottery task knowing that their choices will be observed by the other group members. We find that men’s willingness to choose the riskiest lottery increases monotonically with the number of female observers, whereas women exhibit no comparable response to the number of male observers. Men in all-male groups display levels of risk-taking statistically indistinguishable from those of women in all-female groups, indicating that the observed gender gap emerges primarily in mixed-gender groups. A mating-motivated signaling mechanism is consistent with our results.