Greater visual averaging of face identity for own-gender faces

Recent evidence suggests that observers can rapidly form an average representation based on a set of simultaneously presented faces. Here, we replicate this finding and show that the tendency to process sets of faces in terms of an average representation is greater for own-gender faces. Male and female participants viewed sets of four male or female faces before deciding whether or not a subsequently presented single test face had been present in the set. Incorrect endorsement that it was one of the set members was greater when the test face was a morphed average of the four faces than when it was an actual set member, and this effect was strongest when the gender of the faces was the same as the observer’s. The finding that observers were more likely to incorrectly endorse own-gender (vs. other-gender) faces forms an exception to the often reported own-gender advantage in face recognition.     

Muscle and fat aftereffects and the role of gender: Implications for body image disturbance

Body image disturbance – a cause of distress amongst the general population and those diagnosed with various disorders – is often attributed to the media’s unrealistic depiction of ideal bodies. These ideals are strongly gendered, leading to pronounced fat concern amongst females, and a male preoccupation with muscularity. Recent research suggests that visual aftereffects may be fundamental to the misperception of body fat and muscle mass – the perceptual component of body image disturbance. This study sought to establish the influence of gender on these body aftereffects. Male and female observers were randomly assigned to one of four adaptation conditions (low-fat, high-fat, low-muscle, and high-muscle bodies) and were asked to adjust the apparent fat and muscle levels of male and female bodies to make them appear as ‘normal’ as possible both before adaptation and after adaptation. While neither the gender of observers nor of body stimuli had a direct effect, aftereffect magnitude was significantly larger when observers viewed own-gender (compared with other-gender) stimuli. This effect, which may be due to attentional factors, could have implications for the development of body image disturbance, given the preponderance of idealized own-gender bodies in media marketed to male and female consumers.     

Development of quantitative reasoning and gender biases

One hundred twenty-seven 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children were presented large or small samples of own-gender enhancing or other-gender enhancing observations. Children read arguments based on the observations, rated argument intelligence, judged the number of other children to whom the observations could be generalized, and provided verbal justifications for their judgments. Own-gender reasoning biases declined with age; these declines were, however, partially accounted for by declines in the strength of self-reported gender affiliations. Reasoning biases--demonstrated by problem-to-problem shifts in reasoning quality-were constrained by sample size, indicating a modest degree of rationality even among 7-year-olds. Specifically, biases co-existed with reasonably limited generalizations from small samples of own-gender evidence and with reasonably extensive generalizations from large samples of other-gender evidence. Children were thus able to satisfy motivations for own-gender favoritism and reason in accord with the law of large numbers. Several explanations of the findings-based on changes in the salience of gender, multiple classification skills, and the ability to reason independently from beliefs-are offered.     

Eye-tracking the own-gender bias in face recognition: Other-gender faces are viewed differently to own-gender faces

Research on the own-gender bias in face recognition has indicated an asymmetrical effect: an effect found only in women. We investigated the own-gender bias, using an eye-tracker to examine whether the own-gender bias is associated with differential processing strategies. We found an own-gender bias in our female participants. Our eye-tracking analysis indicated different scanning behaviours when processing own- and other-gender faces, with longer and more fixations to the eyes when viewing own-gender faces. Our results favour the socio-cognitive model, whilst acknowledging the role of perceptual expertise in the own-gender bias.     

Revealing Gender Double Standards in the Parenthood Norm Depends on Question Order

Becoming a parent has been described as a dominant social norm, especially for women. Though some research has indicated changes toward more flexible gendered parenthood norms, methodological issues may be masking the continued presence of a gender double standard. In line with the condition for activation of double standards, we postulated that endorsement of the parenthood norm would vary depending on the response context. Our aim was to analyze the parenthood norm for women and for men taking into account the response context in a quantitative survey. In a French nationally-representative sample, more than 4,000 female and male adults were asked whether a woman/man can have a fulfilled life without having children in two questions presented in a random order. Based on the literature on question-order effects, the answer to the first question should be influenced by the participant’s personal background (e.g., gender, parental status), i.e., the personal background context, whereas the question asked second should be influenced by the comparison with the first question, i.e. the social relational context. In the personal background context, the own-gender parenthood norm was endorsed more strongly than the other-gender parenthood norm by both female and male participants. In contrast, in the social relational context, the parenthood norm for women was endorsed more strongly than the parenthood norm for men by both female and male participants. Our results showed a strong gender double standard observed only in the comparative context and illustrates the need to use appropriate survey methodology to examine the presence of gendered social norms.

     

Prejudice against Women in Male-congenial Environments: Perceptions of Gender Role Congruity in Leadership

Some authors assert that there is a feminine advantage in leadership, even though female leaders are often targets of prejudice. Our experiment tested how people’s expectations affect this prejudice in different work environments. Participants evaluated a male or a female candidate for a leadership position in an industry that was congruent or incongruent with the candidate’s gender role. Participants showed prejudice against the female candidate, especially when she worked in an industry incongruent with her gender role. Female and older participants showed more prejudice against the female leader than did male and younger participants. These results invoke role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109, 573–598, 2002).     

The Impact of Gender and Setting on Perceptions of Others' Ethics

In this article we explore how differences in gender and setting affect individuals' perceptions of others' ethics. We examine 4 hypotheses: first, that men would be perceived as more utilitarian in their ethics and women would be perceived as more formalist; second, individuals would be perceived to be more utilitarian in work settings than in nonwork settings; third, women would be more accurate in their perceptions of others' ethics; fourth, both men and women would be more accurate in their perceptions of women's ethics. Results strongly support the first, refute the second, modestly support the third, and support the fourth. Overall, the data suggest that men and women share very similar perceptions of own-gender and other-gender ethics. However, these shared perceptions are often quite inaccurate.     

Women's own-gender bias in face recognition memory

Women remember more female than male faces, whereas men do not seem to display an own-gender bias in face recognition memory. Why women remember female faces to a greater extent than male faces is unclear; one proposition is that women attend more to and thereby process female faces more effortfully than male faces during encoding. A manipulation that distracts attention and reduces effortful processing may therefore decrease women's own-gender bias by reducing memory for female faces relative to male faces. In three separate experiments, women and men encoded female and male faces for later recognition in full attention and divided attention conditions. Results consistently showed that women, in contrast to men, displayed a reliable own-gender bias. Importantly, the magnitude of women's own-gender bias was not reduced in divided attention conditions, indicating that it is not a result of effortful processing of female faces. We suggest these results reflect that women have greater perceptual expertise for female faces, facilitating recognition memory.     

Goals as a mediator of gender differences in high-affiliation dyadic conversations

The present study examined whether gender differences in affiliative aspects (collaboration and cooperation) of dyadic conversations occur because girls are more oriented than boys toward goals focused on others. Preadolescents (11-13 years old; 51 boys, 53 girls) worked with a same- or an other-gender peer on a 4-week-long creative-writing task at school. Dyadic conversations and goals were assessed twice. High-affiliation conversations and mutual-participation goals were more prevalent in female than in male and mixed-gender dyads. Mutual-participation goals mediated gender differences in high-affiliation conversations. Control and task-performance goals did not differ by dyad gender. In mixed-gender dyads, conversation strategies and goals did not differ by gender. Implications of goals for understanding gender differences and similarities in conversations are discussed.     

An Empirical Examination of Same- and Other-Gender Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

This study examines sexual harassment (SH) whichinvolves members of the same gender, either male orfemale. Data are taken from the 1988 Department ofDefense Survey of Sex Roles in the Active Duty Military. Separate comparisons for male (38% White, 31%Black, and 31% ‘other’) and female (48%White, 27% Black, and 25% ‘other’) targetsare made between sameand other-gender SH related to fourmajor components of a conceptual model proposed by Fitzgerald,Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley (1997). Thesecomponents include sexual harassment behaviors, personalvulnerability, target response styles, and consequences of the SH for the target. The sexualorientation of targets and perpetrators is notconsidered because data were unavailable. Results reveala number of meaningful differences between sameandother-gender SH. The most striking result is that maletargets of same-gender SH experience consequences thatare significantly more pervasive and severe than thoseexperienced by male targets of other-gender SH.Organizational implications are discussed.     

Sex differences and the own-gender bias in face recognition: A meta-analytic review

We review the literature on sex differences and the own-gender bias in face recognition. By means of a meta-analysis, we found that girls and women remember more faces than boys and men do (g=0.36), and more female faces (g=0.55), but not more male faces (g=0.08); however, when only male faces are presented, girls and women outperform boys and men (g=0.22). In addition, there is female own-gender bias (g=0.57), but not a male own-gender bias (g= ? 0.03), showing that girls and women remember more female than male faces. It is argued that girls and women have an advantage in face processing and episodic memory, resulting in sex differences for faces, and that the female own-gender bias may stem from an early perceptual expertise for female faces, which may be strengthened by reciprocal interactions and psychological processes directing girls' and women's interest to other females.     

Role modeling and female athletes

In order to examine the role-modeling patterns of female athletes, 94 high school and 71 college basketball players were surveyed regarding (a) which player they most emulated, (b) perceptions regarding male vs. female coaches as role models, and (c) preferred gender of coach. High school subjects showed a greater tendency to emulate another player, and the significant majority of player role models were female. High school subjects who perceived a difference considered female coaches to be superior role models, and the 52% with a preference favored a female coach. However, the college subjects who perceived a difference, regarded male coaches as better examples of what they wanted to be and the 42% with a preference favored a male coach.     

The Impact of Job Applicants' Facial Maturity, Gender, and Academic Achievement on Hiring Recommendations

Two studies investigated the impact of job applicants' facial maturity, gender, and achievement level on hiring recommendations. The results revealed that discrimination based on gender and facial appearance varies with the type of job for which an applicant is being considered. Applicants who were babyfaced or female were favored for jobs requiring qualities of warmth and submission, whereas those who were maturefaced or male were favored for jobs requiring qualities of shrewdness and leadership. These hiring preferences were most pronounced for high achieving applicants. They were also paralleled by stereotypical perceptions of the job- relevant attributes possessed by the applicants, which suggests that the effects of applicants' gender and facial maturity are mediated by the perceived fit between their assumed attributes and the job requirements. Finally, the jobs for which male and maturefaced applicants were favored were those for which high-achieving applicants were also favored, which suggests that female and babyfaced applicants are most apt to be discriminated against when applying for higher status jobs.     

Self-Presentational Responses to Success in the Organization: The Costs and Benefits of Modesty

The effectiveness of modesty as a self-presentational tactic in the organization was expected to be influenced by both the gender of the self-presenter and the characteristics of the evaluator. Participants read about a successful employee who responded to a recent achievement using either a low, moderate, or highly modest presentational strategy. Although boastful presenters were always least effective, the effectiveness of moderate and highly modest presenters depended on two additional factors. Highly modest self-presenters were favored over moderate ones when the self-presenter was female, and when the evaluators were co-workers. Alternatively, moderate modesty was favored over high modesty when the self-presenter was male, or when the evaluator was a manager.     

Paternalistic and Envious Gender Stereotypes: Testing Predictions from the Stereotype Content Model

In 2 studies, paternalistic and envious gender stereotypes were examined. Paternalistic stereotypes portray particular female or male subgroups as warm but not competent, whereas envious stereotypes depict some other female or male subgroups as competent but not warm. A total of 134 women and 82 men, primarily White and middle class, participated in this research. Building on the stereotype content model (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002), Study 1 tested the mixed-stereotypes hypothesis that many gender subgroups are viewed as high on either competence or warmth but low on the other. Study 2 additionally addressed the social-structural hypothesis that status predicts perceived competence and interdependence predicts perceived warmth. The results provided strong support for both hypotheses.     

Regulating emotions under exposure to negative out-group-related news material results in increased acceptance of out-groups

ABSTRACT

Negative emotions affect the acceptance of out-groups. Here, we investigated whether modifying negative emotions would affect perceptions of out-groups. We experimentally manipulated the use of two emotion regulation strategies: suppression of emotional expression and cognitive reappraisal, the latter involving reframing a situation to mitigate its emotional impact. Using a population-based sample (N = 317), we conducted an online randomized controlled trial. Participants regulated their emotions while reading threatening news about out-groups. Not only reappraisal, but also suppression increased immediate acceptance of out-groups. The effect of reappraisal was partly mediated by decreased disgust, suggesting unique effects of reappraisal on this emotion. In the suppression condition acceptance decreased at high levels of habitual emotion regulation, whereas reappraisal showed an opposite tendency. Previous research may have underestimated the importance of different emotion regulation strategies on prejudice, and that relatively simple interventions can affect prejudice. The findings are of interest to prejudice prevention programs.     

Status incongruity and backlash effects: Defending the gender hierarchy motivates prejudice against female leaders

Agentic female leaders risk social and economic penalties for behaving counter-stereotypically (i.e., backlash; Rudman, 1998), but what motivates prejudice against female leaders? The status incongruity hypothesis (SIH) proposes that agentic women are penalized for status violations because doing so defends the gender hierarchy. Consistent with this view, Study 1 found that women are proscribed from dominant, high status displays (which are reserved for leaders and men); Studies 2–3 revealed that prejudice against agentic female leaders was mediated by a dominance penalty; and in Study 3, participants' gender system-justifying beliefs moderated backlash effects. Study 4 found that backlash was exacerbated when perceivers were primed with a system threat. Study 5 showed that only female leaders who threatened the status quo suffered sabotage. In concert, support for the SIH suggests that backlash functions to preserve male dominance by reinforcing a double standard for power and control.     

Culture and violence: The interaction of Africa and America

This paper examines the interaction of African and American gender role ideologies as a possible influence on the high rate of wife abuse in African American families. African traditional expectations of strong independent women and reciprocity between spouses conflict with the European-derived American heritage of sexuality as a male status symbol and of male control of women's lives. Important differences in the meaning of male dominance/female subservience in African compared with American culture are explored. The stress created by the conflict between African and American gender role values, exacerbated by prejudice and socio-economic deprivation, may increase emotional turmoil and find expression in violence and guilt in African American families.     

Who are you looking at? The influence of face gender on visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces

Previous research suggests that the own-race bias (ORB) in memory for faces is a result of other-race faces receiving less visual attention at encoding. As women typically display an own-gender bias in memory for faces and men do not, we investigated whether face gender and sex of viewer influenced visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces, and if preferential viewing of own-race faces contributed to the ORB in memory. Participants viewed pairs of female or male own- and other-race faces while their viewing time was recorded. Afterwards, they completed a surprise memory test. We found that (1) other-race males received the initial focus of attention, (2) own-race faces were viewed longer than other-race faces over time, although the difference was larger for female faces, and (3) even though longer viewing time increased the probability of remembering a face, it did not explain the magnified ORB in memory for female faces. Importantly, these findings highlight that face gender moderates attentional responses to and memory for own- and other-race faces.     

Who are you looking at? The influence of face gender on visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces

Previous research suggests that the own-race bias (ORB) in memory for faces is a result of other-race faces receiving less visual attention at encoding. As women typically display an own-gender bias in memory for faces and men do not, we investigated whether face gender and sex of viewer influenced visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces, and if preferential viewing of own-race faces contributed to the ORB in memory. Participants viewed pairs of female or male own- and other-race faces while their viewing time was recorded. Afterwards, they completed a surprise memory test. We found that (1) other-race males received the initial focus of attention, (2) own-race faces were viewed longer than other-race faces over time, although the difference was larger for female faces, and (3) even though longer viewing time increased the probability of remembering a face, it did not explain the magnified ORB in memory for female faces. Importantly, these findings highlight that face gender moderates attentional responses to and memory for own- and other-race faces.