Reducing sex bias in judgements of occupational suitability by the provision of sextyped personality information.

Abstract

DAVID C. HODGINS AND RUDOLF KALINQueen's UniversityABSTRACTUniversity students were asked to act as guidance counselors rating the suitability of stimulus personsfor four male-dominated and four female-dominated occupations in two studies. In study 1 (N = 76)where no personality information was attributed to stimulus persons, sex bias was found. Males andfemales were rated suitable to the extent that their sex was congruent with the sextype of the occupation.In Study 2(N = 115), personality information, in the form of stereotypical ly masculine, feminine, orneutral characteristics, was added to the stimulus person descriptions. Sex bias emerged again with theneutral descriptions. With the masculine and feminine descriptors, however, sextype of personalitydescriptors was far more important than sex of stimulus person in determining suitability ratings. In linewith the social cognition model of occupational suitability judgements proposed by Kalin and Hodgins(1984), it was concluded that with the provision of personal information about the stimulus persons,social category information becomes less significant.