Making comparisons is one of the main ways through which we, as humans, perceive the world. In the context of education, bringing together children will inevitably lead them to compare themselves with each other. As academic performance is easily perceived, they will likely be able to rank themselves among their peers based on that. While the literature finds a strong and positive impact of ranking highly within a group of peers on academic performance, the mechanism behind this is still not clear. Particularly, as the main hypotheses are linked to psychological explanations (higher self-efficacy and motivation), it is key to understand whether the so-called “rank effect” actually affects behavioral outcomes. To answer this question, we follow 10 cohorts of children born in the city of Aberdeen (Scotland) throughout their primary school career. Detailed information on their behavior is also collected. We build ranks by grade according to different standardized tests, finding a large and positive rank effect on academic performance, between 36% and 63% of one unit of standard deviation. That implies that being 3 positions higher in the within-cohort ranking causes an increase in 11+ Test score up to 6%. More importantly, we find that being at the top of your group of peers, everything else equal, reduces the occurrence of “internalizing” behaviors up to 28% of a unit of standard deviation. These are linked to improvements in terms of the children’s perception of themselves, as well as their ability to be determined and focused. We argue that the improvements in self-efficacy spurring from a higher rank are behind the substantial rank effect on academic performance.
Presented by:
Tommaso Sartori, ISER
Date & time:
31 Jan 2024 12:30 pm - 31 Jan 2024 13:30 pm
Venue:
2N2.4.16 (to join us online, please contact the seminar series organisers at iserseminars@essex.ac.uk)
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