Gender Comparisons in Responsiveness to Others' Evaluations in Achievement Settings

Abstract

An experiment tested three possible explanations for gender differences in responsiveness to others' evaluations in achievement settings. Results replicated previous studies and showed that women and men perceived the valence of evaluative messages similarly. Further, women's privately made self-evaluations reflected the valence of others' evaluations to a greater extent than men's. Finally, women saw others' evaluations as more accurate assessments of their performance than did men and said they were more influenced by those evaluations than did men. The best explanation for the gender difference in responsiveness to others' evaluations, therefore, seems to lie in women's and men's differing construals of the informational value of those evaluations. The authors propose that different experiences girls and boys have with evaluative feedback may lead to gender differences in beliefs about the informational value of others' evaluations of our competence.