Abstract
Gender norms can lead men to shy away from traditionally female roles and occupations in communal HEED domains (Healthcare, Early Education, Domestic sphere) that do not fit within the social construct of masculinity. But to what extent do men underestimate the degree to which other men are accepting of men in these domains? Building on research related to social norms and pluralistic ignorance, the current work investigated whether men exhibit increased communal orientations when presented with the true norms regarding men’s communal traits and behaviors vs. their perceived faulty norms. Study 1 (N = 64) revealed that young Belgian men indeed perceive their peers to hold more traditional norms regarding communal and agentic traits than their peers actually hold. Study 2 (N = 319) presented young Belgian men with altered norms to manipulate exposure to men’s actual normative beliefs (i.e., what men truly think), their perceived norms (i.e., what men believe other men think), or a no information control. When men were presented with actual rather than perceived norms, they altered their own self-descriptions, future behavioral intentions, and broader gender-related social attitudes in a more communal direction. In particular, men who were presented with information about men’s actual beliefs regarding the compatibility between communal and agentic traits exhibited the strongest movement toward a more communal orientation. The findings show that participants in conditions that uncover pluralistic ignorance adapted their attitudes and behaviors to be more in line with the actual norm: adopting a more communal self-concept, having lower intentions to hide future communal engagement, and supporting more progressive gender-related social change. The results are discussed in terms of influences of norms on men’s communal orientations and broader attitudes toward gender-related social change, and the down-stream implications for increased gender-equality in HEED domains where men remain highly underrepresented.
Highlights
Gender continues to be a driving force behind men’s and women’s self-selection into some careers and not others
Men did not describe the ideal man as less agentic than what they believed their peers would report, paired samples t(63) = –1.07, p = 0.29, d = –0.13. This result is consistent with Hypothesis 1, postulating that there is pluralistic ignorance with regard to masculinity norms, and that this pluralistic ignorance is specific to communal traits
Results showed a trend such that participants thought that their peers would describe the ideal man as less communal than they on average described themselves, paired samples t(63) = –1.98, p = 0.052, d = –0.25, yet this effect did not reach significance
Summary
Gender continues to be a driving force behind men’s and women’s self-selection into some careers and not others. A limited amount of research has focused on the other side of the coin: men’s underrepresentation in fields dominated by women, for example in health care, elementary education, and roles in the domestic sphere (i.e., HEED; Croft et al, 2015). In HEED fields, in particular, communal qualities are required that embrace the typical female stereotype, focusing on emotional sensitivity and concern for others, such as being kind and considerate, and being understanding and perceptive. In STEM fields, in particular agentic qualities are required that embrace the typical male stereotype, focusing on autonomy and achievement, such as being independent, competent, and resultsoriented (Heilman, 2012). Gender differences in the degree to which boys and girls value communion and agency have been found starting already in childhood (Block et al, 2018)
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