Abstract
This paper studies mixed-gender group interactions in a strategic game where group members are sequentially eliminated till a single winner takes all. Study 1 tests the hypothesis that female contestants are retained till final rounds where they are eliminated. Using observational data from the US television show The Weakest Link (20 shows), results show that females are finalists but not winners. In a laboratory study (Study 2, 67 Berkeley undergraduates), we show that this effect is attenuated when winnings are shared among finalists (versus one winner takes all) due to the reduction in competitive pressures in the context.
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Acknowledgements
We appreciate the assistance of NBC studios, which made available the taped episodes used to code the data in the observational study, the help of research assistants James Heyman and Claire Meissels, and the comments of Alice H. Eagly and Miguel Villas-Boas, as well as audience participants at the 2002 Society for Consumer Psychology meeting in Austin, Texas.
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This research was supported in part by the Junior Faculty Research Grant awarded by the University of California at Berkeley to the second author.
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Valenzuela, A., Raghubir, P. The Role of Strategy in Mixed-Gender Group Interactions: A Study of the Television Show “The Weakest Link”. Sex Roles 57, 293–303 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9263-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9263-8