Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 24, 2025

Assessment of Stress Effects on Cognitive Flexibility using an Operant Strategy Shifting Paradigm
Published on: May 4, 2020
The impact of penalties for wrong answers on the gender gap in test scores
Katherine B Coffman1, David Klinowski2,3
1Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163; kcoffman@hbs.edu.
Abstract:
Multiple-choice examinations play a critical role in university admissions across the world. A key question is whether imposing penalties for wrong answers on these examinations deters guessing from women more than men, disadvantaging female test-takers. We consider data from a large-scale, high-stakes policy change that removed penalties for wrong answers on the national college entry examination in Chile. The policy change reduced a large gender gap in questions skipped. It also narrowed gender gaps in performance, primarily among high-performing test-takers, and in the fields of math, social science, and chemistry.
Related Concept Videos
Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies
Reliability and Validity
Errors In Hypothesis Tests
Sign Test for Median of Single Population
Sign Test for Matched Pairs
To conduct the sign test, we first calculate the differences in...
Fundamental Attribution Error

