Do Women Shy Away from Public Speaking? A Field Experiment

Abstract

Public speaking is an important skill for career prospects and for leadership positions, but many people tend to avoid it because it generates anxiety. We run a field experiment to analyze whether in an incentivized setting men and women show differences in their willingness to speak in public. The experiment involved more than 500 undergraduate students who could gain two points to add to the final grade of their exam by orally presenting solutions to a problem set. Students were randomly assigned to present only to the instructor or in front of a large audience (a class of 100 or more). We find that while women are more willing to present face-to-face, they are considerably less likely to give a public presentation. Female aversion to public speaking does not depend on differences in ability, risk aversion, self-confidence and self-esteem. The aversion to public speaking greatly reduces for daughters of working women. From data obtained through an on-line Survey we also show that neither increasing the gains deriving from public speaking nor allowing participants more time to prepare enable to close the gender gap.

Public Speaking Aversion

“…Finally, we turn to the question of whether public speaking aversion varies by gender (De Paola et al, 2020). Women chose minimum payments that were 1.40 Euros higher on average, a small difference that is not statistically significant (two-tailed t-test; p=0.40).…”

“…21 Regardless of sample choice, we always find that students in the Presentation treatment asked for a significantly higher compensation than students in the Essay treatment. In column 5, we examine whether women are more averse to giving a presentation in front of the class compared to men (De Paola et al, 2020). The coefficient estimate for the Female*Presentation interaction shows that women did not ask for a higher premium for the 19 The women who gave a presentation were not seen as more stressed than their male counterparts by audience members.…”

“…Only few studies in economics have examined heterogeneity in willingness to speak in public or related choices, typically focusing on gender differences. 2 The study most relevant to ours is De Paola et al (2020). In their field experiment, students were given an opportunity to earn extra credits by explaining their solution to an exercise either privately to the instructor or publicly in front of the entire class.…”

Who Does the Talking Here? The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Interactions

“…As regards the quantity of communication, observational data suggest that in public settings like academic conferences and seminars, women tend to ask fewer questions than men (Davenport et al, 2014;Hinsley et al, 2017;Carter et al, 2018;Dupas et al, 2021). This might have to do with women having a stronger aversion to speaking in public, but the experimental evidence on this question is mixed (De Paola et al, 2021;Buser and Yuan, 2022). Regarding communication behavior in small groups, studies in psychology tend to find that males dominate females in terms of speaking time (MacLaren et al, 2020).…”

The Effectiveness of Committee Quotas: The Role of Group Dynamics

“…The evidence on group dynamics demonstrates that men and women do not behave similarly in group deliberations, in terms of voice and influence. For instance, women speak less than men and are considered less powerful during group deliberations (Karpowitz et al, 2012;De Paola et al, 2021). Born et al (2018) found, moreover, that women's individual decisions are less likely to be incorporated into the group's final decision.…”