Gender, Network Recall, and Structural Holes

ABSTRACT Accurate recall of social networks is critical to individuals' success in organizations, as it enables them to leverage networks more effectively. Understanding whether men or women exhibit greater recall accuracy is particularly important given persistent gender inequalities in workplaces and the role of networks in shaping access to social resources and opportunities. We propose that women and men exhibit different levels of recall accuracy, which depend on the structural characteristics of the network. Specifically, women's greater reliance on the triadic closure mental schema—assuming a relationship between two individuals who are both connected to the same third party—enhances their recall accuracy in more cohesive networks with many closed triads but diminishes it in networks with more structural holes. Across three studies, including a demographically diverse sample representative of the US population, we confirm that women exhibit superior network recall accuracy on average and show that this advantage is contingent on network structure. This research advances our understanding of gender differences in network cognition and offers a potential cognitive explanation for women's underrepresentation in brokerage positions, which require recognizing open triads.