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Imagine an experiment in which the (ordinarily identical) views of senior male or female economists are generally presented. Which do you think is more convincing? I think my first guess is that people “had enough experts” along with the famous declaration of former British politician Michael Gove during the Brexit campaign. Failing that, my next guess is “men,” based on research suggesting that there is still a “gap in authority” in the way people perceive men and women. However, when economists Hans Henrik Siebersen and Sarah Smith conducted this experiment in real life, the results proved me wrong on both counts.
Sievertsen and Smith have given nearly 3,000 public in the US a series of statements on economic issues, ranging from financial regulations to windfall taxes and AI. They informed them whether a real life, named Economist, strongly agreed, agreed, uncertain, opposed, or strongly opposed the statement. They then asked the person for their own opinion. Expert opinions were drawn from a panel run by the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago regularly draws out the views of leading academic economists from top universities in the United States on a variety of topics.
This study found that public opinion on these issues was influenced by economists’ views. Even more interesting, female economists were more influential than male economists. The additional effect of seeing opinions expressed by female experts was 20% greater than the effect of seeing the same opinions expressed by male experts.
Why does that happen? In search of responses, the researchers played the experiment, but this time they deleted information about the expert’s credentials (the professor’s title and university name). The gender gap disappeared when the only thing the public knew was that they were “economists.” Men and women were equally persuasive to the public.
For Sievertsen and Smith, the best explanation for their findings is that the public assumes themselves. Women must be more impressive than men to become professors in the prestigious university in a field dominated by men. “If you “made it” in the domain of stereotypical men, you might simply say a visibly successful woman and be perceived as superior to your male counterparts,” they wrote in their paper.
Several other studies have found similar phenomena. In one experiment, scholars performed game-based tests in Ethiopia to study whether people followed advice differently when male or female leaders (or otherwise identical) were randomly assigned. The experiment found that people were unlikely to follow the guidance of female leaders. However, when researchers told a subset of people that their leaders had high abilities, people were more likely to follow the guidance of “high abilities” women than “high abilities” men.
Is it correct to assume that women who have been successful in male dominated fields must be superior to their male counterparts? Or is this very unfair for men? Smith doesn’t say, “I know women need to get better,” Smith said. “But we certainly know there is stereotypical discrimination against women who are going further in the process.”
For example, one study used machine learning techniques to study voice recordings of over 1,700 economic seminars. The analysis found that female speakers were interrupted more frequently and earlier than male speakers, and that extra interruptions mainly arise from female audiences rather than males. The study found that men were more likely to comment than they asked questions about female presenters.
Another study found that men were given tenure at roughly the same rate, regardless of whether they co-authored the research paper or wrote it alone, but women were less likely to take tenure as they accepted tenure.
Whether it is correct to assume that public members are higher for women in occupations dominated by certain men, it is useful to know that it is an assumption they may be making.
For example, if you are an older woman in a male-dominated field and you are trying to do something public face, it suggests that you should silence your inner voice whispering that the audience might reject or discount your expertise. In fact, they may be thinking.
sarah.oconnor@ft.com
