Despite holding similar beliefs about the value of negotiating, boys are more likely than girls to ask for bigger bonuses for completing the same work, according to a new study led by scholars at New York University and Boston College.
The study consisted of three experiments. In the first two, the authors recruited a sample of children aged 6 to 9 and presented them with hypothetical scenarios in which they could negotiate a bonus. The first regarded negotiating with a teacher upon completing classroom work, while the second scenario featured a neighbor and neighborhood work. Both boys and girls had similar perceptions of the commonality and permissibleness of negotiating and reported they would negotiate to a similar extent in both scenarios.
However, when children were given the opportunity to negotiate, gender differences emerged. In the third experiment, the children were given a cognitive test consisting of identifying images on a computer. Overall, boys and girls had similar test results. Regardless of performance, all participants were told they should receive pictures of animals as a bonus. The authors then asked each child how many pictures they thought they should receive for their performance.
The findings revealed that the average boy asked for more bonus pictures than 65 percent of all girl participants. Both relative to girls and relative to their actual results, boys had a higher perception of their own performance, helping explain why they tended to ask for larger bonuses. The authors believe these findings provide insight into the early origins of gender differences in negotiating, which can lead to further research into dismantling these inequities in society.