Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/129655 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1091
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
Failure to express minority views may distort the behavior of company boards, committees, juries, and other decision-making bodies. Devising a new experimental procedure to measure such conformity in a judgment task, we compare the degree of conformity in groups with varying gender composition. Overall, our experiments offer little evidence that gender composition affects expression of minority views. A robust finding is that a subject's lack of ability predicts both a true propensity to accept others' judgment (informational social influence) and a propensity to agree despite private doubt (normative social influence). Thus, as an antidote to conformity in our experiments, high individual ability seems more effective than group diversity.
Subjects: 
Conformity
Gender Differences
Group Composition
Skill
JEL: 
C90
D02
D71
D83
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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