Economics Seminar Series (ESS) - 2023/2024

Interviene: Lina Lozano  (NYU Abu Dhabi)

Titolo: Attribution Narratives of Failure and Success in Strategic Settings

Abstract: Throughout our educational and professional journeys, we encounter both setbacks and achievements, each requiring justification to ourselves and others. Typically, the origins of these outcomes are a mix of internal factors (like personal ability and effort) and external elements beyond our control (such as other individuals or luck). It's common to observe a "self-attribution bias" where individuals credit successes to personal merit and attribute failures to external factors, preserving self-esteem. This project delves into another potential driver of this bias: a strategic rationale. Through an online experiment, we explore how individuals assign causes to ambiguous feedback, where outcomes could stem from their own abilities or those of others. Additionally, in light of recent findings on gender-based differences in attribution biases, we examine whether men and women differ in their rationalizations for failures and successes and the implications of these differences in a recruitment setting. Understanding the dynamics and economic repercussions of gender-based attribution disparities is vital, as they may contribute to persistent gender imbalances in the workforce, including the underrepresentation of women in senior roles.