Gendered Responses to Subtle Social Pressure: Experimental Evidence from Survey Results

Abstract

This study analyzes whether subtle variations in the survey questionnaire phrasing influence participant engagement and whether these effects differ by gender. Building on theories of social pressure and politeness norms, it is hypothesized that presumptive phrasing would reduce engagement compared to appreciative phrasing and baseline phrasing (H1), and this effect would be more pronounced among women (H2). Mixed-effects regression models showed no significant treatment effects on any outcome and no evidence of gender moderation for 164 participants and 492 observations. The only robust finding was a small negative baseline sentiment across all participants, independent of any treatment or gender. The findings contribute to refining theoretical expectations about the conditions in which linguistic framing and gender norms shape behaviour.