In this blog post I will try my best to explain this effect, the reason I would like to write about this is, as explained by Tellhed and Björklund in 2010:
"our anticipation is that female negotiators can benefit from learning that stereotype threat causes sex differences in outcome goals, which in turn causes sex differences in salary requests. Hopefully, learning about the effect that stereotype threat has on negotiators outcome goals gives female negotiators a chance to resist stereotype threat effects, by consciously deciding upon a more challenging goal."
Needless to say, this is my anticipation as well. So I will try explain this phenomenon in an adequate manner, because I am positive that information like this might help some women to gain better salaries.
Stereotype threat leads to lower salary requests
First of all, what is a stereotype threat? To put it easily one can explain stereotype threat as a scenario where you are risking the possibility to confirm a stereotype, and as a result of this threat the particular stereotype becomes real! That is, if women have a stereotype of being bad negotiators and/or have a stereotype that in turns make her a worse negotiator in cases where she is experiencing a stereotype threat.
This was tested in a study done in Sweden 2010. In this study the test subjects where divided into four groups, two with women and two with men. All four groups were presented with a test. The test was equal to all groups. They were to enter a room where they should negotiate their salary (with an hired actor). The difference between the groups was how the test was presented. Two groups (one with men and one with women) got clear instructions stating that this was a hard test, to test their ability to negotiate, wheres the other two groups got clear instructions the test was easy and would not test their ability to negotiate.
The reasoning here is that in the first group of women would perform worse, since there is women stereotypes that are considered negative in negotiating.
By stating that the test is about their ability to negotiate a stereotype threat is created. The results of the study clearly shows that a stereotype threat affects their ability to negotiate. Among the man and women who wasn't under the influence of a stereotype threat there was no difference in the result of the studies. But considering the men and women there was a difference wheres the women scored much worse at the negotiating.
If you look at the results more thoroughly you can clearly see that women that were affected by stereotype threat made a lower reservation salary (the minimum salary they would accept) before the negotiation. And having a low reservation salary is proven to be a major factor of how much the negotiator requests and what final outcome they get from the negotiation.
Real life implications
It is believed that this stereotype threat is present in a real life salary negotiation. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that one factor that determines women lower salaries are due to stereotype threat (but this is by far not the only factor). As suggested by the study from 2010 it is suggested that women in real life situations make a lower reservation salary and in turn requests a lower salary in salary negotiations. It is believed (but not proven) that by knowing this effect and consciously request a higher salary can help to combat this effect and in turn generate gender equal salaries.
But as I said before, this is not the only factor that determines women salary. Tellhed and Björklund states in their article that according to Bowles from 2007 "men were less willing to work with a woman who had asked for a higher compensation than what she was offered in a job interview. However, the willingness to work with a man was unaffected by whether he had asked for a higher compensation or not."
So, what science tells us is that if a woman faces salary negotiations in a job interview she is likely to request lower salary and be a worse negotiator than a man, this can be combated by all women by consciously requesting a higher salary. But if a woman would do so they are less likely to get the job because men are less willingly to work with a woman that does so. This can be considered proof that men and women both have to work for gender equality.
In my next blog post I will comment on Bowles study from 2007 and try to explain why men are less willingly to work with women that request higher salaries.
The majority of the source material in this blog post comes from "Stereotype threat in salary negotiations are mediated by reservation salary" written by Tellhed and Björklund 2010.
Stereotype threat leads to lower salary requests
First of all, what is a stereotype threat? To put it easily one can explain stereotype threat as a scenario where you are risking the possibility to confirm a stereotype, and as a result of this threat the particular stereotype becomes real! That is, if women have a stereotype of being bad negotiators and/or have a stereotype that in turns make her a worse negotiator in cases where she is experiencing a stereotype threat.
This was tested in a study done in Sweden 2010. In this study the test subjects where divided into four groups, two with women and two with men. All four groups were presented with a test. The test was equal to all groups. They were to enter a room where they should negotiate their salary (with an hired actor). The difference between the groups was how the test was presented. Two groups (one with men and one with women) got clear instructions stating that this was a hard test, to test their ability to negotiate, wheres the other two groups got clear instructions the test was easy and would not test their ability to negotiate.
The reasoning here is that in the first group of women would perform worse, since there is women stereotypes that are considered negative in negotiating.
By stating that the test is about their ability to negotiate a stereotype threat is created. The results of the study clearly shows that a stereotype threat affects their ability to negotiate. Among the man and women who wasn't under the influence of a stereotype threat there was no difference in the result of the studies. But considering the men and women there was a difference wheres the women scored much worse at the negotiating.
If you look at the results more thoroughly you can clearly see that women that were affected by stereotype threat made a lower reservation salary (the minimum salary they would accept) before the negotiation. And having a low reservation salary is proven to be a major factor of how much the negotiator requests and what final outcome they get from the negotiation.
Real life implications
It is believed that this stereotype threat is present in a real life salary negotiation. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that one factor that determines women lower salaries are due to stereotype threat (but this is by far not the only factor). As suggested by the study from 2010 it is suggested that women in real life situations make a lower reservation salary and in turn requests a lower salary in salary negotiations. It is believed (but not proven) that by knowing this effect and consciously request a higher salary can help to combat this effect and in turn generate gender equal salaries.
But as I said before, this is not the only factor that determines women salary. Tellhed and Björklund states in their article that according to Bowles from 2007 "men were less willing to work with a woman who had asked for a higher compensation than what she was offered in a job interview. However, the willingness to work with a man was unaffected by whether he had asked for a higher compensation or not."
So, what science tells us is that if a woman faces salary negotiations in a job interview she is likely to request lower salary and be a worse negotiator than a man, this can be combated by all women by consciously requesting a higher salary. But if a woman would do so they are less likely to get the job because men are less willingly to work with a woman that does so. This can be considered proof that men and women both have to work for gender equality.
In my next blog post I will comment on Bowles study from 2007 and try to explain why men are less willingly to work with women that request higher salaries.
The majority of the source material in this blog post comes from "Stereotype threat in salary negotiations are mediated by reservation salary" written by Tellhed and Björklund 2010.
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