NYC Gazette

Studies have long documented a gender gap in wages, with various causes identified over the years. A new study suggests that these disparities may begin early in life. The research, published in Developmental Psychology, reveals that boys tend to ask for larger bonuses than girls when completing the same tasks, despite having similar views on negotiation.

The study was conducted by a team of psychology researchers, including Sophie Arnold from New York University and Andrei Cimpian, a professor of psychology at NYU. "Our findings suggest that boys tend to overestimate their abilities compared to girls—and relative to their actual performance," says Arnold. This self-perception could lead boys to feel more entitled during negotiations.

The research involved three experiments focusing on children aged six to nine. The first two experiments explored whether boys and girls had similar perceptions of negotiation through hypothetical scenarios involving classroom or neighborhood work. In these scenarios, both genders showed comparable views on negotiation's likelihood, permissibility, potential backlash, and rewards.

Despite this similarity in perception, the subsequent experiment demonstrated a noticeable difference in bonus requests between genders. More than 200 child participants performed cognitive tasks with no significant difference in performance between boys and girls. However, when asked how many bonus pictures they deserved for their achievements, boys typically requested more than about 65% of girls did.

This discrepancy is attributed to differences in perceived competence. Boys believed they performed better than they actually did and were thus more inclined to negotiate for higher bonuses. Notably, while both genders had similar perceptions regarding negotiation's commonality and permissibility, only boys' perceptions influenced their bonus requests.

Katherine McAuliffe from Boston College notes: "Boys leveraged their perceptions of how common and permissible it is to ask for more, while girls did not." This meant that even when both thought negotiating was acceptable and common practice, boys negotiated more aggressively than girls.

The study received support from the National Science Foundation (DGE-2234660).