Gender Differences in the Cost of Corrections in Group Work

Corrections among colleagues are an integral part of group work, but people may take corrections as personal criticism, especially corrections by women. I study whether people dislike collaborating with someone who corrects them and more so when that person is a woman. Using a novel quasi-laboratory experiment, I find that people, including those with high productivity, are less willing to collaborate with a person who has corrected them even if the correction improves group performance. Yet, I do not find robust evidence that people respond more negatively to women’s corrections, and this is not driven by their beliefs about the difference in women’s and men’s abilities. These findings suggest that although women may not receive a stronger negative reaction, there is a behavioral bias that distorts the optimal selection of talents and penalizes those who correct others’ mistakes.