When a man loses to a woman, he wants revenge

You may have wondered why men and women do not always react the same way in the world of sport. Some researchers did while spectating at a karate competition. They noticed that men preferred to fight other men. If a man lost to a woman with the same belt colour, he experienced the defeat as particularly shameful. This observation gave the researchers an idea for a new experiment: They wanted to investigate whether the opponent’s gender actually affects how one performs and reacts in a competitive situation. The researchers were surprised by the results as it turned out that men were more likely to want to compete again if they had lost to a woman. And that’s not all: The men also performed better in the subsequent round.

What was the fundamental motivation behind these findings?

“A desire for revenge,” says Sarah Zaccagni. She is an assistant professor at the Department of Economics at Aarhus BSS at Aarhus University and is behind the research together with colleagues from France and Spain. The scientific article has been published in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics.

The overconfident men are particularly keen to win over a female opponent.

^{Sarah Zaccagni, assistant professor, Department of Economics and Business Economics}

More men than women overestimated their own efforts

In a simple laboratory experiment, participants were asked to add up sets of five two-digit numbers. Before the results were revealed, the participants were asked about their expectations for their own performance: Did they think they had won the adding-up competition? 

75% of men expected to have won. This was only true for 55% of the women.

“It is a clear indication of how confident these men were. And that’s important. It’s the men who have great faith in their own abilities who drive the results in our experiments. The overconfident men are particularly keen to win over a female opponent,” explains Sarah Zaccagni,” explains Sarah Zaccagni.

I wouldn’t want to call it stubbornness, but men have a greater need than women to win. 

^{Sarah Zaccagni, assistant professor, Department of Economics and Business Economics}

Men want revenge

The laboratory experiment with the addition exercises included a tournament in which participants competed against another participant. In this winner-takes-all tournament, the winner received EUR 1.50 for each correct answer, while the loser received EUR 0. 

After each tournament, the participants had to choose whether to continue competing against the same opponent or switch to a piece-rate payment without having to compete. This allowed researchers to find out who chose the tournament option and what their motivation was.

And this was where the researchers saw what knowledge about the opponent’s gender meant for the choices made. 

When men who expected to win ended up losing to a woman, their willingness to compete again increased significantly. 

“I wouldn’t want to call it stubbornness, but men have a greater need than women to win. It seems as if men really do not like losing to women,” she continues. 

Men who had already beaten a woman were less willing to compete against her again, compared to when they had beaten another man. 

According to the researchers, the same explanation applies: Men may be inclined to avoid the potential risk of losing to a woman, as it could jeopardise their reputation.

It triggers a need in them to show that they can outperform the women.

^{Sarah Zaccagni, assistant professor, Department of Economics and Business Economics}

Improved performance after losing

Another surprising finding from the laboratory experiment was that when the overconfident men lost to women, their performance improved in the next round. 

One explanation may be that these men’s unrealistic or inaccurate beliefs in their own abilities can serve as a driving force – especially when a man feels the need to ‘restore’ his status in relation to a female opponent. And according to researchers, this may be motivated by shame, pride and the need for revenge. 

“These types of feelings trigger a desire in the men to do better. It triggers a need in them to show that they can outperform the women,” says Sarah Zaccagni.

“One plausible explanation for these findings could be that men may previously have built a reputation for prevailing over women,” she and her colleagues write in the article.

Men tend to be more confident and competitive than women.

^{Sarah Zaccagni, assistant professor, Department of Economics and Business Economics}

Gender and competition are linked

Sarah Zaccagni does research within experimental economics and behavioural economics, where she is currently focusing on explaining gender differences in the world of business and industry. The big question is: Why are women less likely to reach high-level positions than men?

In their search for answers, Sarah Zaccagni and her colleagues concluded that it was important to include two elements in their experimental study: an element of competition and knowledge about the gender of the opponent. Sarah Zaccagni explains:

“These two key elements complement each other really well, in the sense that there are several situations in our working lives where we compete for things like job promotions. Competitive behaviour has been studied extensively in previous research. We also know that men and women exhibit very different attitudes towards competition: Men tend to be more confident and competitive than women. Our contribution is to investigate how people react in a competitive situation, depending on whether their opponent is a man or a woman. This perspective is relevant because it also says a lot about the types of policies that can be implemented to perhaps foster more equitable environments – also when it comes to competition for high-level positions in the labour market,” says Sarah Zaccagni, adding:

“Possible corrective measures could include having a more balanced or more diverse composition of participants in terms of gender, because that kind of environment fosters competition on equal terms. Another solution could be for policies to perhaps encourage collaboration rather than competition.”

Women do not reach the top

The study contributes to the broader research literature examining why women are still underrepresented in leadership positions. Today, only 28.3% of the world’s leaders are women, according to UN Women. Previous studies show that women are more likely to drop out on the way to top positions, while men are more likely to re-enter the competition even when their qualifications are not necessarily better. According to researchers, this can lead to a loss of efficiency when less qualified candidates end up in the highest positions rather than more qualified ones.

“Men try harder. They dare. They’re more confident than women and therefore dare to apply for positions that women would never apply for. But it’s not just because of their courage or boldness. Willingness to re-compete also plays a role. This is where our new research findings become relevant to the job market, because most of the time, you don’t just apply for promotion once, since the chances of getting the promotion or job the first time you apply are pretty slim. It’s a process. But women probably lose faith more often than men, or they react differently to rejections to men,” says Sarah Zaccagni. 

In careers with many competitive elements (e.g. promotions, bonus schemes etc.), these small differences come to play a significant role: Men have more opportunities to show off and build experience. Women who are equally talented but less inclined to compete end up with fewer chances. This creates a self-perpetuating system where women are underrepresented at the top – not due to lack of ability, but because they are more likely to choose not to compete from the outset.

Facts

We strive to comply with Universities Denmark’s principles for good research communication. For this reason, we provide the following information as a supplement to this article: