In search of gender bias in evaluations and trait inferences: The role of diagnosticity and gender stereotypicality of behavioral information

Meta-analytic reviews indicate that the gender of a target person has a significant but small impact on evaluators' judgments about this person. The present study examines the extent to which this small effect reflects evaluators' tendencies not to use an evaluatee's gender because they assume that case information about a target is more informative about his or her abilities, knowledge, and traits than is gender. The first study indicates that decreasing the diagnosticity of case information does not increase the tendency for people to be influenced by the target's gender. However, the first and second study illustrate that despite the weak influence of the target's gender, subjects are still using gender stereotypes when making social judgments about the evaluatee. This is evidenced by the impact of the stereotypicality of the case information. This is most clearly seen in Study 2, which illustrates how components of gender stereotypes are influencing judgments.Portions of this research were supported by a University of Minnesota Dissertation Grant. Thanks go to Gail Swenson, Rose Enriques, and Wayne Bylsma for their assistance in the data collection, to my committee members Eugene Borgida (Chairperson), Marti Gonzales, Mark Snyder, Geoffrey Maruyama, Barbara Loken for their suggestions on the first study, and to Cindy Thomsen and Eugene Borgida for their support, encouragement, and consultations.