Similarity over Status in Partner Selection under Competition

Project Description
This research investigates the tension between gender homophily (preference for same-gender partners) and strategic considerations in competitive contexts. Across three pre-registered studies, we examine whether participants prioritize strategic advantage or gender similarity when selecting competitors and teammates.
Study 1 tests partner selection patterns in individual and team-based competitions involving an arithmetic reasoning task. Contrary to Status Characteristics Theory (SCT) predictions, participants predominantly select same-gender partners in both competitor and teammate roles, suggesting a stronger influence of gender homophily than anticipated.
Study 2 employs an incentivized belief elicitation task to examine whether the unexpected results from Study 1 stem from an absence of gender-based performance expectations. Results reveal that participants actually believe women outperform men in the arithmetic task, yet still exhibit same-gender preferences in partner selection.
Study 3 tests the robustness of gender homophily by introducing explicit performance information that conflicts with homophilous preferences. Even when presented with clear performance metrics and monetary incentives, a significant proportion of participants forgo optimal strategic choices in favor of gender similarity.
Our findings establish boundary conditions for Status Characteristics Theory and demonstrate that gender homophily can persist even when it contradicts both status-based expectations and rational choice predictions.

Repository Contents
Data Files:
S1_data.csv: Participant selections and demographic data from Study 1 examining partner selection patterns
S2_v1.csv: Belief elicitation data from Study 2, Version 1 (no competition context)
S2_v2.csv: Belief elicitation data from Study 2, Version 2 (individual competition context)
S2_v3.csv: Belief elicitation data from Study 2, Version 3 (team competition context)
S3_data.csv: Study 3 data testing gender homophily against explicit performance information

Analysis Scripts:

S1_Analysis_Code.R: R script for analyzing Study 1 partner selection patterns
S2_Analysis_Code.R: R script for analyzing Study 2 belief elicitation tasks across all versions
S3_Analysis_Code.R: R script for analyzing Study 3 gender homophily against performance ratings

Otree Code is also included