Prejudice Toward Asian American Women: Clothing Influences Stereotypes

Abstract

Clothing type can have a significant impact on the way people are perceived. In this study, we were interested in the effect of business versus casual clothing on the perception of Asian American women, given various stereotypes about them. We used a between-subjects design with a sample of college students from a university in the United States. Participants saw 3 Asian American women (and 1 European American woman to distract from the nature of the study) in either business attire or casual outfits, and rated each woman on a series of descriptors based off various stereotypes of Asian American women. We used the Scale of Anti-Asian American Stereotypes to measure internal prejudice toward Asian Americans and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory to measure sexism. The Scale of Anti-Asian American stereotypes was a significant covariate, F(4, 233) = 6.09, p < .001, ηp2 = .10. Participants rated models in business attire as less stereotypically Asian, F(1, 239) = 46.56, p < .001, ηp2 = .17, less sexualized, F(1, 239) = 12.91, p < .001, ηp2 = .05, and less invisible, F(1, 239) = 42.01, p < .001, ηp2 = .15. Our results show that stereotypes can indeed be influenced by business attire. It is important to note that future research may be oriented toward changing the attitudes of those who hold harmful stereotypes, rather than the actions (i.e., clothing choices) of the subjects of prejudice.