Which is the More Predictable Gender? Public Good Contribution and Personality

Abstract

Questionnaires can and have been used to predict behaviour in economic settings. Using two sets of measures from personality psychology (the Big Six) and social psychology (Social Value Orientation), we find that the behaviour of men is predictable in the first half of a public good contribution experiment, whereas that of women is not. This result agrees with the reinterpretation of Carol Gilligan’s (1982) view that women are more sensitive to the context in which decisions are made. In practice, questionnaires such as those used in human resource management settings may fail to capture women’s preferences.