Free DP Download 7 January 2022 - The Gender Gap in Preferences: Evidence from 45,397 Facebook Interests

Ruben Cuevas Rumin, Angel Cuevas Rumin, Klaus Desmet, Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín CEPR Discussion Paper No. 16740 | November 2021

This paper uses information on the frequency of 45,397 Facebook interests to study how the difference in preferences between men and women changes with a country's degree of gender equality. For preference dimensions that are systematically biased toward the same gender across the globe, differences between men and women are larger in more gender-equal countries. In contrast, for preference dimensions with a gender bias that varies across countries, the opposite holds. This finding takes an important step toward reconciling evolutionary psychology and social role theory as they relate to gender.

You can listen to a podcast where Klaus Desmet tells Tim Phillips about this research.

Discussion paper

DP16740 The Gender Gap in Preferences: Evidence from 45,397 Facebook Interests

• Angel Cuevas Rumin
• Ruben Cuevas Rumin
• Klaus Desmet
• Ignacio Ortuño-Ortin

20 Nov 2021

• Labour Economics
• Political Economy
• D01
• D10
• D90
• D91
• J16
• O57
• Z1

VoxEU Talk

The gender gap: Nature or nurture?

• Klaus Desmet

7 Jan 2022

• Gender