Psychological momentum and gender

Danny Cohen-Zada; Alex Krumer; Ze'ev Shtudiner

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.01.009

Psychological momentum and gender

Danny Cohen-Zada, Alex Krumer, Ze'ev Shtudiner

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Ariel University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We exploit a natural experiment in which two professionals compete in a one-stage contest without strategic motives and where one contestant has a clear exogenous psychological momentum advantage over the other in order to estimate the causal effect of psychological momentum on performance. This unique setting commonly occurs in bronze medal fights in professional judo. Based on data on all major international tournaments during the period between 2009 and 2013 we find that men's performance is significantly affected by psychological momentum, while women's is not. This result is robust to different specifications and estimation strategies. Our results are in line with evidence in the biological literature that testosterone, which is known to enhance performance of both men and women, commonly increases following victory and decreases following loss only among men.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	66-81
Number of pages	16
Journal	Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume	135
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.01.009
State	Published - 1 Mar 2017

Keywords

Contests
Gender differences
Momentum
Performance
Testosterone

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Economics and Econometrics
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.01.009

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title = "Psychological momentum and gender",

abstract = "We exploit a natural experiment in which two professionals compete in a one-stage contest without strategic motives and where one contestant has a clear exogenous psychological momentum advantage over the other in order to estimate the causal effect of psychological momentum on performance. This unique setting commonly occurs in bronze medal fights in professional judo. Based on data on all major international tournaments during the period between 2009 and 2013 we find that men's performance is significantly affected by psychological momentum, while women's is not. This result is robust to different specifications and estimation strategies. Our results are in line with evidence in the biological literature that testosterone, which is known to enhance performance of both men and women, commonly increases following victory and decreases following loss only among men.",

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AU - Shtudiner, Ze'ev

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AB - We exploit a natural experiment in which two professionals compete in a one-stage contest without strategic motives and where one contestant has a clear exogenous psychological momentum advantage over the other in order to estimate the causal effect of psychological momentum on performance. This unique setting commonly occurs in bronze medal fights in professional judo. Based on data on all major international tournaments during the period between 2009 and 2013 we find that men's performance is significantly affected by psychological momentum, while women's is not. This result is robust to different specifications and estimation strategies. Our results are in line with evidence in the biological literature that testosterone, which is known to enhance performance of both men and women, commonly increases following victory and decreases following loss only among men.

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EP - 81

JO - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

ER -

Psychological momentum and gender

Abstract

Keywords

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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