What If the Energizer Bunny Were Female? Importance of Gender in Perceptions of Advertising Spokes-Character Effectiveness

An experiment was designed to determine whether and in what way gender makes a difference in the ratings of advertising spokes-characters. It was hypothesized and results confirmed that gender and product type affect the likability of spokes-characters and perceptions of target audience. A male spokes-character is perceived as more appropriate for a male-oriented product; however, a female spokes-character and a male product created the impression that the product was not quite so male oriented. It was also hypothesized that the spokes-character with the most positive ratings would be the most memorable. Results did not bear this out.     

Gender differences in mathematics anxiety: An artifact of response bias?

Abstract

Females are more likely than males to report anxiety about mathematics. Hunsley and Flessati (1988) examined two explanations for this difference: the sex-role socialization hypothesis, which states that gender differences occur as a result of differences in socialization, and the math experiences hypothesis, which states that math anxiety is due to previous experiences with mathematics, regardless of gender. They found support only for the math experiences hypothesis, and suggested that the gender difference in math anxiety may be an artifact of response bias.

The present study replicated the Hunsley and Flessati study and included an evaluation of response bias. One hundred and fifty Introductory Psychology students completed a series of questionnaires examining mathematics anxiety, attitudes and mathematical background. The findings of Hunsley and Flessati were replicated, however no evidence was found for a gender-linked response bias. An alternative explanation for the gender difference in math anxiety is proposed based on the finding that females are more self-critical.     

Does anxiety-linked attentional bias to threatening information reflect bias in the setting of attentional goals,or bias in the execution of attentional goals?

Heightened anxiety vulnerability is characterised by an attentional bias that favours the processing of negative information. However, this anxiety-linked attentional bias is amenable to two quite different explanations. One possibility is that it reflects anxiety-linked bias in the setting of attentional goals that favours setting the goal of attending towards negative information over the alternative goal of attending away from such information. Another possibility is that it reflects anxiety-linked bias in the execution of attentional goals that enhances the execution of the former attentional goal compared to the latter. The present study introduces a novel methodology designed to discriminate the validity of these competing hypotheses, by examining anxiety-linked attentional bias under two conditions. One condition left attentional goals unconstrained. The other condition imposed the attentional goal of either attending towards more negative or more benign emotional stimuli. The finding that anxiety-linked attentional bias was observed only under the former condition supported the hypothesis that anxiety is characterised by a bias favouring the setting attentional goals involving vigilance rather than avoidance of negative information, while giving no support to the hypothesis that anxiety is characterised by a bias reflecting enhanced execution of the former attentional goal compared to the latter.     

What mediates gender bias in work behavior ratings?

This study explored possible mediators of gender bias in work behavior ratings. However, we believed it important to do so by first attempting to create a decision-making environment that better reflected the cognitive demands imposed on raters in work settings. Accordingly, 74 participants, mostly White and middle class students, read a vignette that depicted the work behavior of a male or female police officer. All participants attended to another task while reading the vignette and did so while under a perceived time limit; then, immediately or 5 days later, they completed a work behavior questionnaire. As expected, more effective work behaviors were attributed to men than women—but only when ratings were delayed. Further analyses revealed that a systematic response bias was responsible, whereas selective memory played no role. Specifically, participants adopted a more liberal decision criterion when attributing effective work behaviors to men than women. These results help to illuminate the dynamics of discrimination and provide direction for future research efforts.     

Revisiting the mediating role of leader–member exchange in transformational leadership: the differential impact model

Transformational leadership (TFL) has been proposed as an essential antecedent of leader–member exchange (LMX), which in turn affects outcomes in organizations. We extend this mediation hypothesis in two ways by proposing a differential impact model, which we test on three organizational outcomes: employee job satisfaction, employee organizational commitment, and leader effectiveness. First, we extend LMX’s mediational impact—which has previously only been tested for employee outcomes—to leader effectiveness. Second, we argue that this mediation will be stronger for outcomes that are more proximal rather than distal to dyadic relations between leader and followers (high proximity: job satisfaction; medium proximity: organizational commitment; low proximity: leader effectiveness). Meta-analytic structural equation modelling based on 132 studies revealed that LMX mediates TFL’s relationships with employee outcomes (more strongly for job satisfaction than for commitment), but not with leader effectiveness, whereas TFL showed a stronger direct link to leader effectiveness. The findings suggest that TLF and LMX contribute differentially to organizational outcomes depending on their proximity to dyadic relations between leaders and followers. The differential impact model uncovers leadership effectiveness processes, integrates influential leadership theories, and highlights the importance of distinguishing between different outcome measures and the processes facilitating them.     

Reducing the performance-cue bias in work behavior ratings: can groups help?

The authors examined whether the performance-cue bias can be reduced by relying on groups as raters. Study participants (N = 333) were provided with feedback regarding the performance of a workgroup and, after observing the group, assigned to an individual or group rater condition to complete a behavioral rating instrument. Results revealed that when provided with positive (vs. negative) feedback, individuals attributed more effective and fewer ineffective behaviors to the workgroup; however, group ratings were unaffected by the feedback. In addition, feedback biased the decision criteria and false alarm rates of individuals but not of groups. Discussion of when groups may attenuate versus amplify bias in performance appraisal judgments emphasizes 2 key elements-bias magnitude and task perception.     

Is it possible to prepare the second component of a movement before the first one?

Experiment 1 utilized a choice reaction time paradigm to examine whether advance information about the second component of a movement has similar effects upon movement initiation and execution as advance information about the first component. Four stimuli were assigned to four goal keys. Subjects responded with the index finger of their preferred hand. They had to press on of two intermediate keys before pressing the assigned stimulus goal key. Advance information signaled one pair of goal keys in such a way that either the first or the second movement component was unequivocally specified before the response signal appeared. Shorter reaction times resulted when the first component was precued. Further control conditions showed that advance information about the second movement component could not be utilized for movement preparation. Experiment 2 ruled out a perceptual interpretation of this effect. Experiment 3 showed that preparation time for two-component movements are longer than for one-component movements. The study permits the conclusions that speeded two-component movements are controlled by motor programs and that advance information about the first movement component is required before the second movement component can be programmed.     

Men in the Office,Women in the Kitchen? Contextual Dependency of Gender Stereotype Activation in Spanish Women

In a set of two studies, we tested whether gender-stereotypical associations are automatically activated by Spanish women in a categorization task, and how this process is conditioned by the context in which the target is presented (kitchen vs. office). We hypothesized that gender stereotypes would be activated implicitly when the target (men vs. women) appeared in an office context (associated with male dominant roles), but not when they appeared in a kitchen context (traditionally associated with female roles). The studies were conducted with two samples (N?=?44; N?=?47) of female undergraduate students from the University of Granada (Spain). In both studies, a priming effect was found, indicating that a traditional, role-congruent stereotype pattern (men-competence, women-warmth) emerged when primes appeared in an office context, but not in a kitchen context. Further, negative competence traits were evaluated faster when a male prime was presented in the context of a kitchen (role-incongruent). The purpose of Study 2 was to clarify the implicit nature of this contextual contingency effect by manipulating the controllability of the priming effect (i.e., Stimulus Onset Asynchrony duration-SOA, and restricted response time). The results of Study 1 were replicated in only the short SOA condition, which implies faster and presumably less controlled processing of the stimuli. Theoretical implications for stereotyping and gender role research are discussed.     

Who emerges as a leader? Meta-analyses of individual differences as predictors of leadership emergence

For more than sixty years, the leaderless group discussion (LGD) has been commonly used to assess leadership emergence and potential. This research focuses on individual differences as predictors of leader emergence in LGDs. Meta-analytic methods allowed us to combine and compare results from 45 studies, producing 196 effect sizes, and make statistically guided decisions about the strength of relationships between individual difference and personality variables and leadership emergence in LGDs. Consistent with more general research on leader emergence and effectiveness, we found a number of individual differences predictive of leader emergence in LGDs, most notably extraversion and authoritarian personality. This research augments previous meta-analytic research on personality and leadership with a focus specifically on the leaderless group discussion.     

When Does Gender Count? Further Insights into Gender Schematic Processing of Female Candidates' Political Advertisements

In this study we explored viewers' responses to advertising by female political candidates. Gender schema theory provided the basis for developing a better understanding of the circumstances when voters evaluate female candidates and how cognitive representations of what women are like influence viewer responses. Results showed general support for the predictions derived from gender schema theory. That is, participants did seem to rely on gender schema in making judgments, a form of inference making known as “default processing,” when information was absent. Results also indicated that participants relied more on gender schematic processing when the advertisement elicited positive emotions and less on gender schematic processing when exposed to an attack ad. For comparison, viewers' responses to male candidates' political advertising were also examined. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for political campaigns.     

Is there a universal positivity bias in attributions? A meta-analytic review of individual, developmental, and cultural differences in the self-serving attributional bias

Researchers have suggested the presence of a self-serving attributional bias, with people making more internal, stable, and global attributions for positive events than for negative events. This study examined the magnitude, ubiquity, and adaptiveness of this bias. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 266 studies, yielding 503 independent effect sizes. The average d was 0.96, indicating a large bias. The bias was present in nearly all samples. There were significant age differences, with children and older adults displaying the largest biases. Asian samples displayed significantly smaller biases (d = 0.30) than U.S. (d = 1.05) or Western (d = 0.70) samples. Psychopathology was associated with a significantly attenuated bias (d = 0.48) compared with samples without psychopathology (d = 1.28) and community samples (d = 1.08). The bias was smallest for samples with depression (0.21), anxiety (0.46), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (0.55). Findings confirm that the self-serving attributional bias is pervasive in the general population but demonstrates significant variability across age, culture, and psychopathology.     

Is there a position bias in the learning of influence structures?

An experiment was conducted to determine the nature of position biases in the cognitive representation of hierarchical social structures. A position in such a structure reflects the relative influence of its occupants. Using DeSoto's technique, 24 Dutch and 24 French Ss learned either a completely ordered or incompletely ordered structure. No significant differences were found between countries. The completely ordered structure was found easier to learn than the incomplete ones. According to the results of previous studies (Van Kreveld and Zajonc, 1966; Poitou, 1970) the learning curves for completely and incompletely ordered structures were expected to be respectively curvilinear and monotonic. The results did not support this expectation.     

Gender role identity and dating behavior: What is the relationship?

The influence of gender role identity on dating behaviors of college students was examined using the Bem Sex Role Inventory and a behavioral questionnaire constructed by the author. One hundred and ninety-seven students were classified as androgynous, undifferientated, feminine, or masculine based on their Bem Sex Role Inventory scores. A behavioral questionnaire was used to generate two self-report behavioral indexes: the masculine dating behavior and feminine dating behavior indexes. Results indicated that high-masculine individuals (androgynous and masculine individuals) scored higher on the masculine dating behavior index and that high-feminine individuals (androgynous and feminine individuals) scored higher on the feminine interactional index. The results of this study support the hypothesis that gender role identity influences self-reported dating behavior of college students.     

Tactful or doubtful? Expectations of politeness explain the severity bias in the interpretation of probability phrases

When a statement about the occurrence of a medical condition is qualified by an expression of probability, such as the word possible, listeners interpret the probability of the condition as being higher the more severe the condition. This severity bias can have serious consequences for the well-being of patients. We argue that the bias is due to a misconception of the pragmatic function served by the expression of probability. The more severe the condition, the greater the chance that the listener construes the expression as a politeness marker rather than as an uncertainty marker. When this misconception does not occur, neither should the severity bias. An analysis of interpretations of probability expressions using a membership-function approach validates this account. We discuss the consequences of this bias for the communication of risk within and outside the medical domain.     

Position effects in encoding briefly exposed item matrices: evidence for a reading bias or merely a matter of the selection criterion?

Position effects are frequently reported in experiments that investigate the recognition of items from briefly exposed stimulus matrices. A reliable finding is the ability to report items from the first row of the matrix more accurately than from the second row. The present experiments explore whether this position effect depends upon the selection criterion used to indicate the subgroup of items that has to be reported in a given trial. In Experiment 1, German and Chinese participants were presented with language-specific items which had to be selected by column. In Experiment 2, Germans were presented with Latin letters and the selection criterion was letter color. A strong row effect was evident in both experiments although the selection criteria did not prompt a line-by-line grouping of the items. The row effect is seen as a manifestation of top-down processing that is derived from reading habits.     

Gender Education and the Transformation of Calvinism in the Netherlands, 1870‐1970

Examining from a gender perspective religious education within a prominent branch of Dutch Protestantism, this article investigates the interplay between oppressive and emancipating educational forces. The so‐called Neo‐Calvinists‐‐progressively minded, yet orthodox‐‐sought successfully to update traditional Calvinism and keep it abreast with modern developments from circa 1870 onwards, notably by reforming school, family and youth culture. Notwithstanding Calvinism being traditionally sexist biased, the role of women and girls was becoming more important. Firstly, the article sketches both the influence of Calvinism in the history of the Netherlands and Dutch ‘pillarized’ culture and society between 1880 and 1970, Neo‐Calvinism being one of the main ‘pillars’ within this religiously compartmentalized society. Secondly, it focuses on Neo‐Calvinist gender education and its paradoxical effects.     

Should We Take “Gender” Out of Gender Subtypes? The Effects of Gender,Evaluative Valence,and Context on the Organization of Person Subtypes

Previous research examining the organization of person subtypes has focused on gender and evaluation as organizing principles. Our research additionally examined subtype organization in terms of the classic “person categories” described in the self-concept and impression formation literature. Using both qualitative and quantitative measures, we examined the relative impact of these three mechanisms of subtype organization. We also investigated whether contextual cues impact subtype organization. We found that subtypes are more frequently organized in terms of person categories than by gender or evaluation. Also, as predicted, some subtype clusters' organization was relatively stable, whereas other subtype clusters were more sensitive to contextual influences. These results are discussed in terms of how characteristics that are salient in a situation may prime certain subtypes.     

Whose voice counts? Gender,power, and epistemologies in the seminary classroom

This article wrestles with the question “whose voice counts?” as an entrée into a discussion of the challenges students encounter in learning to value different epistemologies and that professors encounter in attempting to teach for inclusion of voices. The essay reflects on an experience teaching a graduate seminar on gender and epistemology in which students encounter challenges reflecting on readings that present theology in the form of personal narratives, rather than in a more abstract or theoretical form. Course content and genres of writing are both gendered and subject to power dynamics associated with the uneven treatment of different types of knowledge. The paper focuses primarily on the lens of gender but notes as well the intersectional nature of gender – and the ways in which the course dynamics are complicated by the race, sexuality, and even the class of the authors, students, and teacher. The paper makes two substantial arguments. First, it names a pedagogical meta‐question at the intersection of gender and pedagogy: Even when women are on the syllabus, how are educators ensuring that the epistemologies at work in their classrooms allow for equal authorial authority in the classroom? Second, the paper challenges educators to make changes in their classrooms to allow students time to engage and employ epistemologies they discuss and to see the importance of these practices for wider systemic change in institutions and society.