Gender Differences Disappear with Exposure to Competition

Past research nds that males outperform females in competitive situations. Using data from multiple-round math tournaments, we verify this nding during the initial round of competition. The performance gap between males and females, however, disappears after the rst round. In later rounds, only math ability (not gender) serves as a signicant predictor of performance. Several possible explanations are discussed. The results suggest that we should be cautious about using data from one-round experiments to generalize about behavior.