Why does open discussion constrain women’s internal political efficacy?

Despite the incorporation of women into the public sphere in the last decades and the disappearance of some traditional gender gaps in politics such as the gap in electoral participation, women continue to feel less politically efficacious than men in all countries for which data is available. Furthermore, recent research has shown that some pedagogic tools thought to promote political efficacy, such as creating an open classroom climate in school, have a detrimental effect on girls’ confidence to understand politics (García-Albacete & Hoskins, 2024). Within the framework of a larger research project (www.g-epic.eu), in this paper, we isolate two characteristics of the open discussion that potentially limit girls’ efficacy and test them by conducting lab experiments. We will first test whether the detrimental effect is raised when discussing politics – compared to other topics. Secondly, we examine the role of the moderator in the discussion by providing personalized positive feedback compared to not providing any or to providing non-personalized feedback. In doing so we will invite young people to discuss in a controlled environment in which only one of the factors to test is manipulated. These experiments will be conducted in Spain using a convenience sample of university students and taking advantage of the experimental lab at UC3M. Fieldwork is ongoing in Autumn 2024. In this manuscript, we will present the theoretical framework, the experimental design, and the results.