Evolution of gender stereotypes in Spain: traits and roles

The aim of this study is twofold: to determine whether (and how) gender stereotypes have changed over time through a comparison of two different sets of data collected in 1993 (N=1255) and 2001 (N=1255) from a representative sample of the Spanish population, and to examine the relation between gender traits and roles and its stability over time. In addition, special attention is paid to the psychometric properties of the measures of gender traits and roles used in the study. The content of gender stereotypes was found to remain stable over the target period of time, confirming the classical typology (a higher assignment of expressive-communal traits to women and of instrumental-agentic traits to men). The structure of the gender-role questionnaire allows us to distinguish between family-role and work-role stereotyping. Gender-role stereotyping shows a marked decline between 1993 and 2001, a result that contrasts with the stability of trait-role stereotyping. The fact that a very low correlation is observed at the two time points between these two components of gender stereotyping strongly suggests their independence.     

A META-ANALYSIS ON THE MALLEABILITY OF AUTOMATIC GENDER STEREOTYPES

This meta-analytic review examined the efficacy of interventions aimed at reducing automatic gender stereotypes. Such interventions included attentional distraction, salience of within-category heterogeneity, and stereotype suppression. A small but significant main effect ( g  = .32) suggests that these interventions are successful but that their scope is limited. The intervention main effect was moderated by publication status, sample nationality, and intervention type. The meta-analytic findings suggest several issues worthy of further investigation, such as whether (a) other categories of intervention not yet identified or tested could be more effective, (b) suppression necessarily produces ironic effects in automatic stereotyping, (c) various indirect measures are differentially sensitive to stereotype change, and (d) automatic stereotypes about men differ in their malleability from those about women.     

基于IAT和SEB的内隐性别刻板印象研究

采用内隐联想测验(IAT)和刻板解释偏差(SEB)两种测量内隐社会认知的方法考察了120名大学生被试的内隐性别刻板印象。结果表明,大学生中普遍存在着较强的内隐性别刻板印象,人们对于男性以及男性本身持有的刻板印象符合传统的认知习惯,而对于女性及女性持有的刻板印象则与传统的认知习惯有所不同。用IAT和SEB这两种方法测量大学生的内隐性别刻板印象,在被试的性别变量上得到的结果不一致。     

Implicit stereotypes and women’s math performance: How implicit gender-math stereotypes influence women’s susceptibility to stereotype threat

This experiment examined the effects of implicit gender-math stereotyping and implicit gender and math identification on women’s math performance under stereotype threat and reduced threat conditions. Results showed that of the three, only implicit gender-math stereotyping moderated stereotype threat effects on women’s math performance: women who showed less implicit math-gender stereotyping showed the largest performance difference across experimental conditions. These results suggest that women’s implicit associations between gender and math interact with situational cues to influence their math performance: women who implicitly associate women more than men with mathematics were most benefited by reduction of stereotype salience during testing.     

Validating the semantic misattribution procedure as an implicit measure of gender stereotyping

The current research tested the validity of the semantic misattribution procedure (SMP)—a variant of the affect misattribution procedure—as an implicit measure of gender stereotyping. In three studies (N = 604), prime words of gender‐stereotypical occupations (e.g., nurse, doctor) influenced participants' guesses of whether unknown Chinese ideographs referred to male or female names in a stereotype‐congruent manner. Priming scores of gender stereotyping showed high internal consistency and construct‐valid correlations with explicit measures of sexism. Discriminant validity of gender stereotyping scores was tested by investigating relations with priming effects involving grammatical gender (e.g., mother, father). Evidence for discriminant validity was obtained when (1) trials from the two priming measures were presented in a blocked rather than interspersed manner and (2) the measure of stereotypical gender priming preceded the measure of grammatical gender priming. Overall, the SMP showed good psychometric properties and construct validity for the assessment of gender stereotyping.     

Are Gender Differences in Self-Reported Rumination Explained by Women��s Stereotyping?

Although Response Styles Theory posits gender differences in ruminative thought related to depression, evidence of these differences resides largely in self-report data, leading us to hypothesize that stereotyping may influence women??s perceived rumination. In an online survey with 94 U.S. Midwestern college women and 74 men, the re-affirmed relationship between gender and rumination (such that women reported higher levels than men) was moderated by general stereotype acceptance and endorsement of traditional roles for women (benevolent sexism). Only for women were stereotype acceptance and benevolent sexism positively related to perceived rumination, suggesting that rumination may be reported most by women who believe it to be a gender-appropriate response and raising questions about the robustness of gender differences in actual rumination.     

When Is Dominance Related to Smiling? Assigned Dominance, Dominance Preference, Trait Dominance, and Gender as Moderators

We investigated gender and different types of dominance measures as potential moderators of the relation between dominance and smiling. We asked participants about their preference for either a dominant or a subordinate role (dominance preference), randomly assigned one of these roles to them (assigned dominance), and assessed trait dominance, felt dominance, and perceived dominance. Participants had two 8-min dyadic interactions in same-gender groups (33 all-women dyads, 36 all-men dyads), in which one was assigned to be the owner of an art gallery and the other was assigned to be the assistant to the owner. Interactions were videotaped, and smiling and perceived dominance were assessed on the basis of the videotapes. Both the particular dominance measure and gender moderated the relation between dominance and smiling. Results showed that for women in subordinate positions, those who wanted to be in a subordinate position smiled more than those who wanted to be in a dominant position. No such effect occurred for men and for participants in assigned dominant positions.     

Status, Personality, and Gender Stereotyping: Response to Commentators

Status differences between women and men can explain why they perceive themselves as having different personality traits. The status explanation of gender stereotyping is discussed in relation to two views that have shaped research and theory on gender and personality: the traditional view that men and women are characterized by stable, enduring dispositions and the more recent view that women’s and men’s self-perceived traits vary from one situation to another. Other issues include: status in relation to developmental issues and cross-cultural stereotypes, effect of gender identity on gender stereotyped behaviors and traits, and changes in gender stereotyped traits over time within the larger sociocultural context. Differences between the status explanation of gender stereotyping and personality and the view that gender is the central, determining factor are discussed.     

Reactions to counterstereotypic behavior: the role of backlash in cultural stereotype maintenance

Social and economic sanctions for counterstereotypical behavior have been termed the backlash effect. The authors present a model of the role of backlash in cultural stereotype maintenance from the standpoint of both perceivers and actors. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants lost a competition to either atypical or typical men or women and subsequently showed greater tendency to sabotage deviants. Moreover, undermining deviants was associated with increased self-esteem, suggesting that backlash rewards perceivers psychologically. Experiment 3 showed that gender deviants who feared backlash resorted to strategies designed to avoid it (e.g., hiding, deception, and gender conformity). Further, perceivers who sabotaged deviants (Experiment 2) or deviants who hid their atypicality (Experiment 3) estimated greater stereotyping on the part of future perceivers, in support of the model's presumed role for backlash in stereotype maintenance. The implications of the findings for cultural stereotypes are discussed.     

“You throw like a girl:” The effect of stereotype threat on women's athletic performance and gender stereotypes

Objectives“Stereotype threat” occurs when people perform worse at a task due to the pressure of a negative stereotype of their group's performance. We examined whether female athletes may underperform at an athletic task if prompted to think about gender stereotypes of athleticism. We also explored whether gender stereotypes regarding general athletic ability would be affected by a standard stereotype threat induction.DesignWe used a 2 (participant gender) × 2 (stereotype threat manipulation) factorial design with task performance and gender stereotypes of athleticism as dependent measures.MethodFemale and male tennis and basketball college student athletes performed two athletic tasks relevant to their sport: a difficult concentration task and an easier speed task. Participants were told beforehand that (1) there was a gender difference on the tasks (to induce stereotype threat) or (2) there was no gender difference (to remove any preexisting stereotype threat).ResultsOn the difficult task, women performed worse than men only when stereotype threat was induced. Performance on the easier speed task was unaffected by the stereotype information. Interestingly, women's beliefs regarding women's and men's general athleticism were also affected by the manipulation.ConclusionsWe concluded that one minor comment regarding a very specific athletic task may sometimes impair task performance and alter gender stereotypes of athleticism among women. Some implications for preventing negative stereotype threat effects are discussed.     

What the voice reveals: within- and between-category stereotyping on the basis of voice

The authors report research that attempts to shift the traditional focus of visual cues to auditory cues as a basis for stereotyping. Moreover, their approach examines whether gender-signaling vocal cues lead not only to between-category but also to within-category gender stereotyping. Study 1 showed that both men and women vary within category in how feminine their voices sound and that perceptions of vocal femininity are highly consensual. Furthermore, the measured acoustic characteristics that differed between gender were also related to perceptions of within-gender femininity. Subsequent studies demonstrated that variability in vocal femininity affects gender stereotyping when the targets are all of the same gender (Study 2) and when the targets are of different genders (Study 3). In the latter case, evidence of both category-based and feature-based stereotyping was found. Mediation analyses showed that the relationship between acoustics and stereotyping was in part due to femininity.     

Determinants of Gender Essentialism in College Students

Psychological essentialism suggests that categories are stable, fixed at birth, and based on biological factors. The present paper examined some factors that encourage gender essentialism among US college students. In two studies (Study 1: 53 female, 22 male; Study 2: 55 female, 48 male), participants completed questionnaires assessing essentialist beliefs regarding a range of gendered concepts. They also completed several questionnaire measures of gender stereotyping and gender beliefs. Results revealed: (1) greater essentialism among men than women; (2) greater essentialism of masculine (vs. feminine) concepts, and; (3) for men, greater essentialism among those who report greater conformity to masculine norms. These data suggest that masculinity is more narrowly defined than femininity, not only in stereotyped beliefs but also in essentializing.     

The role prioritization model: How communal men and agentic women can (sometimes) have it all

Men and women are persistently associated with breadwinning and caregiving roles and related stereotypes. A role prioritization model (RPM) is presented that accounts for the conditions under which penalties and benefits arise due to perceived fulfillment or neglect of communal/caregiving roles (typically associated with women) and agentic/breadwinning roles (typically associated with men). Our model makes unique contributions to understanding gender stereotyping and negative evaluations for stereotype violation (i.e., backlash). First, behaviors suggesting low prioritization of one's traditional gender role—when women appear to neglect caregiving and men neglect breadwinning—produce particularly harsh judgments. Second, behaviors indicating successful balancing of role prioritization (e.g., men who augment breadwinning with communal behavior and women who augment childrearing with agentic behavior) allow avoidance of backlash. The RPM is useful for organizing existing research on gendered perceptions and for understanding perceptions of men and women who violate gender norms to create greater gender equality.     

Gender and height: Developmental patterns in knowledge and use of an accurate stereotype

The belief that men are taller than women is an accurate gender stereotype that is presumably learned through everyday encounters with men and women. It is unlike most gender beliefs that are difficult to quantify and verify, and that may be learned through means other than direct experience. This research makes use of several advantages available when studying an accurate stereotype (e.g., the ability to know the “truth” about judged targets). Subjects from five different age/grade levels (kindergarten, third grade, seventh grade, tenth grade, and college, N=491, 92.26% Caucasian, 7.54% Arabic, 0.2% African American) made judgments of “who is taller” among photographed male—female pairs that had actually been matched in height. Judgments were made of kindergarten, seventh grade, and college photo pairs. In a developmental context, height judgments are particularly interesting because the gender difference in height changes at different ages—specifically, girls are taller than boys around seventh grade. The data indicated that subjects were sensitive to the changing height stereotype—i.e., they judged adult males taller than adult females, but seventh grade females taller than seventh-grade males. However this was most strikingly true among subjects directly faced with this reality in their peer context—seventh graders—and among college students. Height judgments were also sensitive to an ingroup (gender) bias. The data are discussed in reference to the broader literature on stereotyping and base rate influences on judgment.     

Gender differences in implicit gender self‐categorization lead to stronger gender self‐stereotyping by women than by men

It was hypothesized that, in natural group contexts, low‐status in‐group membership would be highly accessible, whereas membership to high‐status groups would not. Therefore, gender group membership was predicted to be more accessible for women than for men. It was further hypothesized that the high accessibility of gender group membership would lead to stronger self‐stereotyping for women than for men. To measure the accessibility of gender group membership, participants performed a Gender Self‐Categorization Implicit Association Test (Studies 1 and 2), measuring the strength of automatic associations between the self and the gender in‐group. Participants also performed a Self‐Stereotyping Implicit Association Test (Study 2), assessing the strength of automatic associations between the self and the stereotypical traits of the in‐group. As expected, implicit gender self‐categorization and implicit gender self‐stereotyping were stronger for women than for men. Importantly, implicit gender self‐categorization mediated the relation between gender and self‐stereotyping. Therefore, implicit gender self‐categorization was the mechanism underlying stronger implicit self‐stereotyping by women. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Physical attractiveness and its relationship to sex-role stereotyping

On the basis of recent findings showing that physical attractiveness serves as an important evaluative cue in person perception, the present paper reviews evidence which indicates that physical attractiveness differentially affects the judgments of males and females. Recent research seems to indicate that the physical-attractiveness stereotype — which holds that attractive individuals are more positively evaluated across a wide range of dimensions than unattractive individuals — is more potent when applied to women than to men. The origins of this differential stereotyping are discussed in terms of the historically defined roles of men and women in our society. In addition, the paper discusses the implications of the physical-attractiveness stereotype for the general problem of sex-role stereotyping.     

Facial appearance, gender, and emotion expression

Western gender stereotypes describe women as affiliative and more likely to show happiness and men as dominant and more likely to show anger. The authors assessed the hypothesis that the gender-stereotypic effects on perceptions of anger and happiness are partially mediated by facial appearance markers of dominance and affiliation by equating men's and women's faces for these cues. In 2 studies, women were rated as more angry and men as more happy-a reversal of the stereotype. Ratings of sadness, however, were not systematically affected. It is posited that markers of affiliation and dominance, themselves confounded with gender, interact with the expressive cues for anger and happiness to produce emotional perceptions that have been viewed as simple gender stereotypes.     

Category and stereotype activation revisited

In Study 1 (N= 230), we found that the participants' explicit prejudice was not related to their knowledge of cultural stereotypes of immigrants in Sweden, and that they associated the social category immigrants with the same national/ethnic categories. In Study 2 (N= 88), employing the category and stereotype words obtained in Study 1 as primes, we examined whether participants with varying degrees of explicit prejudice differed in their automatic stereotyping and implicit prejudice when primed with category or stereotypical words. In accord with our hypothesis, and contrary to previous findings, the results showed that people's explicit prejudice did not affect their automatic stereotyping and implicit prejudice, neither in the category nor stereotype priming condition. Study 3 (N= 62), employing category priming using facial photographs of Swedes and immigrants as primes, showed that participants' implicit prejudice was not moderated by their explicit prejudice. The outcome is discussed in relation to the distinction between category and stereotype priming and in terms of the associative strength between a social category and its related stereotypes.     

Are Machines Gender Neutral? Gender-Stereotypic Responses to Computers With Voices

This study tested whether computers embedded with the most minimal gender cues will evoke gender-based stereotypic responses. Using an experimental paradigm (N = 40) that involved computers with voice output, the study tested 3 gender-based stereotypes under conditions in which all suggestions of gender were removed, with the sole exception of vocal cues. In all 3 cases, gender-stereotypic responses were obtained. Because the experimental manipulation involved no deception regarding the source of the voices. this study presents evidence that the tendency to gender stereotype is extremely powerful, extending even to stereotyping of machines.