Researchers evaluate whether single women exhibit these tendencies in an elite US MBA program by testing whether students reported different ambitions privately and publicly, or if their responses varied when the audience was largely male. Researchers found that when they expected their answers to be shared, single women reported wanting US$18,000 less in annual compensation, jobs with less frequent travel, and work with fewer hours per week than when they thought their answers would be private.

University students are increasingly demanding more feedback on their performance relative to their peers, yet little is known on the impact of this feedback on student performance. Researchers shared information on students’ relative academic standing among university students in Spain to evaluate the impact of this information on student performance and satisfaction.