No gender difference in confidence or metacognitive ability in perceptual decision-making

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Gender Studies
• Decision Science

Background:

• Previous research on gender differences in confidence and metacognitive ability yielded inconsistent results.
• Studies often lacked well-controlled tasks or performance-independent measures for metacognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender differences in performance, confidence, and metacognitive ability.
• To address limitations of prior research by using well-controlled tasks and performance-independent measures.
• To determine if gender influences metacognitive evaluation in perceptual decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 10 studies within the Confidence Database (N=1,887).
• Inclusion of a large number of trials (N=633,168) for robust statistical power.
• Meta-analysis of the 10 datasets to confirm findings.

Main Results:

• Absence of strong gender differences in task performance.
• No statistically significant gender differences observed in confidence levels.
• No gender differences found in metacognitive ability.
• Meta-analyses corroborated the absence of gender differences.

Conclusions:

• Gender does not appear to have a strong effect on metacognitive evaluation in low-level perceptual decision-making.
• Previously reported gender differences in confidence and metacognition are likely specific to particular domains.
• Future research should consider domain specificity when examining gender and metacognition.