Meta Analysis of Gender-Based Risk Taking

This research is a meta-analysis of gender difference in risk behavior. The research examines 15 individual publications and 5 meta-analysis studies dealing with general difference in risk behavior. This paper attempts to answer the questions of “whether gender difference in risk taking behavior exists? If so, whether male and female entrepreneurs would behave differently as business owners? In prior studies, the answers to these questions had been inconclusive. The objective of this research is to reconcile conflicting results of the current literature on gender difference in risk behavior. This study has found that there is no statistical significance in gender difference in risk taking behavior: (Z(obs) < Z(0.95)) in both individual papers and meta-analyses. This lack of gender difference is non-random under adjacent tests: p = 0. Statistically significant Cohen’s d (m_d = 0.38 ± 0.33) in prior studies may be reconciled by confounding variables, such as cultural beliefs and stereotypes; meta-analysis of Similarity Index also shows that there is gender similarity in risk behavior: (m_si = 0.87 ± 0.06). This finding is confirmed by Weilbull statistics with b < 1 signifying diminishing gender difference in risk behavior; the survival rate for the similarity is  S(t) = 1 and a score of instantaneous failure of H(t) = 0. Assertions about gender difference in risk behavior becomes demonstrative evidence of Type I error. The finding of this paper has significant implications because it dispels the perception of gender difference in risk behavior. The dissolution of such perception would assure equal treatment among male and female entrepreneurs; thus, enhancing social equity in business dealings.