Effects of Hormonal Contraceptive Use On Women's Status-Relevant Decision-Making: A Multi-Study Investigation

Authors:

Abstract: Hormonal contraceptives have played a transformative role in empowering women to take charge of their reproductive choices. Despite their societal advantages, the impact of HCs on day-to-day status-relevant, competitive and economic decision-making remains underexplored, particularly in organizational contexts. Using five datasets (Total N = 422), we investigated the relationship between hormonal contraceptive use and status-relevant decision-making across a suite of contexts encompassing negotiations, competitive decision-making and resource allocation, and risk-taking. The results revealed that women’s choice to use hormonal contraception did not predict differences in decision-making. Specifically, no differences emerged between HC users and non-users in terms of individual gains achieved in an integrative job negotiation, competitive decision-making and resource allocation in the dictator and ultimatum games, or risk-taking across three different measures. Future researchers may consider extending this research to samples of working female professionals and to other organizationally relevant decision-making outcomes.

Track: DEC

Keywords: decision-making, negotiations, competition, hormonal contraceptives