Does Goal Incongruence Lead to Unequal Division of Household Labour? An Experimental Study of Polish Couples

Agnieszka Wincewicz, Polish Economic Institute
Lukasz Baszczak, University of Warsaw
Iga Rozbicka , Polish Economic Institute
Maksymilian Pyrkowski, Polish Economic Institute
Marcin Lewandowski, Warsaw University

Satisfaction with the division of household and caregiving tasks influences one’s willingness to have children. This strengthens the need to further investigate why, despite changing social norms, economic conditions, and the established position of women in the labour market, women continue to bear primary responsibility for these tasks – a factor that ironically enough may contribute to persistent fertility patterns. Our experimental approach draws on decision theory. It focuses on the misalignment of partners’ short-term goals, where one partner – typically the woman – prioritises completion of tasks over dividing work egually. We examine whether asymmetry in motivation to perform household chores and transparency of this asymmetry affect women and men differently, contributing to the uneven division of household labour. In a laboratory experiment in which couples perform a simple task resembling a typical household chore, the participants are told to minimise individual effort while one of them is given an extra goal of making sure the work is done in a given time. In the 2x2 between-subjects design we manipulate transparency of the extra goal and sex of the partner assigned the extra goal. Our pilot study showed differences primarily in couples with non-transparent goals, with women doing more work on average. When goals were transparent, the difference almost disappeared – indicating that goal visibility promotes a more equal division of labour. Data collection for the full experiment (100 couples) is currently underway and the final results will be known by the end of this year.

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 Presented in Session P3. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 3