Gender Stereotype Activation Research Articles

What gender are the animal characters in the illustrations? Gender stereotyping by children in early childhood

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to examine gender stereotyping by pre-school children in selecting a picture book cover and assigning gender to animal characters in illustrations. We aimed to explore which gender children would assign to bear characters, when these are portrayed in different more or less gender stereotyped activities, occupations or emotional states. Furthermore, we analysed the criteria on which the children based their decision. The sample included 71 children aged 5–6 years. The findings showed that children’s selection of their favourite cover was consistent with gender stereotypes; most children picked the cover stereotypical of their gender. Similarly, the children’s assigning of gender to bear characters was consistent with gender stereotypes as well. The criteria they used when determining gender of a bear character could be categorized into three broader categories referring to the appearance of the bears; colours used and gender roles present in child’s environment.

Gender stereotypes and voice assistants: do users’ gender and conversation topic matter?

ABSTRACT Voice assistants (VAs), such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Now, are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Consequently, the potential societal impacts of such systems are gaining relevance in public and academic discourses. Investigating the effects of VA voice features on user perception of VAs is one central aspect of research. Here, the potential effects of VAs on the perception of gender roles and the attribution of gender stereotypes stand out. Following the Computers as Social Actors paradigm, it is assumed that gendered voices have the potential to reproduce existing gender stereotypes. Yet, recently, the implementation of gender-ambiguous voices has been suggested to mitigate such effects and promote more diverse technology design. In this study, we set out to inquire about the relationship between gendered VA voice (male, female, gender-ambiguous) and gender stereotype activation. In two online surveys with an experimental manipulation (Study 1: N = 140, Study 2: N = 397), we test stereotype activation as a function of VA voice, user gender, and conversation topic. Empirical findings are mixed, with no effects for conversation topic but indications of small effects of VA voice. Implications for future research are discussed.

The effect of different representations of pictures on the activation of gender stereotypes

The purpose of this study is to explore whether there is N400 effect on the representation of gender stereotype in the different picture priming condition from the behavioral and ERP levels, and further explore whether there is hierarchical structure of upper category, secondary category, typical example and counter-example based on this. The results showed: (1) under the condition of picture priming, N400 effect would be induced when representing the conflict of gender stereotypes. (2) Category representation and example representation can activate different regions of the brain. When the priming stimulus was upper category (gender picture) and secondary category (occupational gender picture), N400 effect mainly appeared on the electrode of frontal region in left hemisphere.When the priming stimuli were typical example (typical example picture) and counter-example, the N400 effect mainly appeared on the electrodes in the frontal region of the right hemisphere.(3) the gender stereotype representation of picture activation has hierarchical structure, that is, N400 amplitude induced by upper category activation < secondary category activation < typical sample activation < counter-example activation. These findings suggest that the representation of gender stereotypes has a hierarchical structure at the picture level.

Queer Terror Management: The Effect of Death Attitudes on Gender Stereotypes

The present research aims to facilitate radical, intersectional psychosocial intervention in gender stereotypes. Queer terror management theory provides a theoretical framework for an effect of death attitudes on stereotypes about sex, gender and desire. An initial version of the theory assumed that death acceptance would inhibit the activation of gender stereotypes, depending on the moderating role of mortality salience. A quasi-experiment with Implicit Association Tests and explicit surveys was run to put the theory to an initial test. Results showed that a more positive death valence in wave 1 - not death acceptance or mortality salience - was associated with less implicit sexual identification, gender prejudice and homonegativity. Explicit results were not conclusive. Future research shall replicate the quasi-experiment and broaden its scope to further kinds of social prejudice.

Cognitive processing differences between stereotype activation and semantic activation

Previous studies have demonstrated that the activation of stereotype conflict is similar to the N400 congruency effect shown by the activation of semantic violation. In order to distinguish the differences between the two, the first experiment used gender stereotype trait words as target stimuli, and used “male/female” and “synonym of trait words/antonym of trait words” as priming stimuli respectively, so that the subjects completed the consistency determination task. In experiment 2, gender stereotyped behavior pictures were used as target stimuli, and “male/female” was used as priming stimuli, so that the subjects completed the task of consistency determination. The results showed that both gender stereotype conflict and semantic violation could induce N400 a congruency effect. Importantly, the N400 amplitude and response latency induced by gender stereotype activation are both smaller than those induced by semantic activation. These results show that stereotype activation is distinct from semantic activation, further demonstrating that the brain preferentially processes information related to gender stereotypes, and gender stereotype cognitive processing is more likely to happen than semantic knowledge processing.

Cognitive processing differences between stereotype activation and semantic activation

Previous studies have demonstrated that the activation of stereotype conflict is similar to the N400 congruency effect shown by the activation of semantic violation. In order to distinguish the differences between the two, the first experiment used gender stereotype trait words as target stimuli, and used “male/female” and “synonym of trait words/antonym of trait words” as priming stimuli respectively, so that the subjects completed the consistency determination task. In experiment 2, gender stereotyped behavior pictures were used as target stimuli, and “male/female” was used as priming stimuli, so that the subjects completed the task of consistency determination. The results showed that both gender stereotype conflict and semantic violation could induce N400 a congruency effect. Importantly, the N400 amplitude and response latency induced by gender stereotype activation are both smaller than those induced by semantic activation. These results show that stereotype activation is distinct from semantic activation, further demonstrating that the brain preferentially processes information related to gender stereotypes, and gender stereotype cognitive processing is more likely to happen than semantic knowledge processing.

Myths About Women in the Political Executive—How Gender Stereotypes Shape the Way MPs Assess the Competences of Ministers

This article sheds light on the obstacles that women face as members of the government by answering the questions: How does the sex of ministers shape the way MPs’ assess the quality of their work? And, how does this relationship differ depending on the political ideology of MPs? We argue that legislators assess the competencies of women ministers differently after the activation of gender stereotypes, but that the way they react depends on the ideological orientation of their party. We investigate this topic in a real-word context using a unique survey experiment with German and Austrian MPs. The evidence reveals that, while MPs belonging to right-wing parties perceive women in the executive as less competent than men ministers, their colleagues from left-wing parties actually assess them more favorably. These findings highlight the persistence of old myths about women’s lacking political skills and the emergence of new ones about women’s superior ability to govern.

Do men and women differ in the capability of weaving online social networks: A perspective of gender stereotype activation

This study aims to identify the gender difference in online social networks by comparing the condition that gender label is manifest and gender stereotype can be activated easily, with the condition under which gender is concealed and the activation of stereotype is difficult. The data about the follower-followee networks from 15,118 individual users and 5933 institutional users in Sina Weibo, a popular local social networking service, was used to compare the gender difference. The findings of this study tell a significantly different story with the prior gender studies regarding the disparity of social networks between genders. The higher degree centrality and lower closeness centrality of males demonstrates that males are more likely to enjoy a central position in both the immediate neighborhood and the entire virtual community. The higher betweenness centrality of males suggests that people depend more on males to make connections with other people, therefore males are more powerful than females in “controlling” the formation of ties between random pairs of users. However, females can increase the likelihood of forming a social tie and building up the whole network structure. Furthermore, people prefer to make an online social tie with those who have different gender with self.

Leading or Cheer-Leading? The Gender Gap in Political Smiles

AbstractIn contrast to men, women are often assumed to bear the burden of making others feel comfortable through positive emotional displays such as smiling. However, in the literature, the empirical evidence for the relevance of gender stereotypes in explaining electoral outcomes remains inconclusive. By focusing on gender stereotypes regarding facial emotional displays, this study addresses the gendered consequence of candidates’ smiling on their electoral fortunes. I analyze the results of the 2014 Korean local elections and measure candidate smiles on campaign posters by employing a biometric artificial intelligence application detecting facial emotions in images. The results demonstrate that the smiling effect has a powerful positive impact on the electoral performance of women candidates running in a multicandidate race. The positive effect is limited for women running in two-candidate races and for male candidates regardless of the number of competitors. The findings suggest that voters use intuitive cues such as candidate facial displays in electoral posters when choosing among multiple candidates in low-information settings. This study contributes to a better understanding of the activation of gender stereotypes in the electoral process.

Explicit and implicit activation of gender stereotypes additively impair soccer performance and learning in women

Studies involving the manipulation of instructions regarding the negative characteristics of a group or comparisons with members of another group (explicit activation of stereotypes) have shown that age, weight, and gender stereotypes can be harmful to motor performance and learning. To date, however, no study has observed whether implicit stereotype threats, such as the sex of the coach or experimenter, can also influence the acquisition of motor skills. In the present study, the individual and combined impact of implicit and explicit influences of gender stereotype on women’s soccer performance and learning was examined. In a 2 × 2 design, 60 women were divided into four groups according to the presence or absence of explicit (ES) and implicit (IS) stereotypes: ES/IS, ES, IS, and control. The groups with implicit activation practiced in the presence of a male experimenter. The groups with explicit activation received instructions activating the gender negative stereotype. The control group practiced without stereotype activations. The results showed that both explicit and implicit activation additively impaired soccer performance and learning, with both main effects being significant for practice and retention. The ES/IS group showed lower scores on the task relative to the other groups, while the ES and IS groups showed worse scores compared with the control group. The findings suggest that stigmatised populations may be forced to cope with more than one social identity threat while learning sport motor skills and indicate the importance of further studies testing strategies to minimise the deleterious effects of negative stereotypes.

National Culture and its Impact on Entrepreneurial Teams: A Gendered Perspective

Grounded in gender stereotype activation theory, this study examines how cultural perceptions towards women entrepreneurs affect team processes, namely team reflexivity and consequently the team’s resources. We test our hypotheses combining data from 64 entrepreneurial teams comprised of members from different countries with measures of national culture from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Results show that the proportion of women in a team is positively related to the team’s resources via the mediating effect of team reflexivity. However, the effect of the proportion of women in a team on team reflexivity and, ultimately, on a team’s resources, is stronger when team members are from countries with a more favorable national perception of women’s entrepreneurship. These findings provide evidence for framing the quality of team processes as contingent to the interaction between the proportion of women in a team and national culture towards female’s entrepreneurship and contribute to the literature on women entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial teams and culture.

The Interaction of Morphological Gender With Stereotypical Information: An Eye Tracking Study on Gender Inferences

In this paper we observe the time-course and the activation of gender stereotypes comparing the predictions of two competing models: the Minimalist (McKoon et al., 1992) and the Mental Model Hypothesis (Garnham 2001). The on-line processing of sentences containing male-biased stereotypes is experimentally investigated in Italian on epicenes nouns (i.e. nouns that do not morphologically disambiguate between male and female referents) adopting a procedure based on the Visual World paradigm.Eye-movements during sentence comprehension show that stereotypes become immediately active as soon as male-biased role nouns are encountered, as predicted by the Mental Model Hypothesis. Our results also show that when disambiguating cues based on morphological agreement are provided, the activation of stereotypes is blocked. This indicates that morphological gender is quickly processed and that it can suppress stereotypical gender biases.

Neural correlates of the implicit processing of grammatical and stereotypical gender violations: A masked and unmasked priming study

The aim of this study was to explore the neural correlates of the automatic activation of gender stereotypes by using the masked and unmasked priming technique. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants were presented with an Italian third-person singular pronoun (lui or lei) that were preceded by either a grammatically-marked (e.g., passeggeraFEM, pensionatoMASC) or stereotypically-associated (e.g., insegnanteFEM, conducenteMASC) role noun. Participants were required to judge the grammatical gender of the personal pronoun ignoring the preceding word. This word was presented in a masked or unmasked way. The results revealed slower reaction times and larger N400, in both the masked and unmasked conditions, when the pronouns were preceded by gender-incongruent than gender-congruent grammatical and stereotypical primes. A P300 effect also emerged in both masked and unmasked conditions for the grammatical gender mismatch between the antecedent and the pronoun. These results provide evidence that gender stereotypes can strongly influence our behavior even under unconscious conditions.

Facial expressions can inhibit the activation of gender stereotypes

ABSTRACTUsing faces as the priming stimuli, the present study explored the influence of facial expressions on the activation of gender stereotypes using a lexical decision paradigm. Experiment 1 explored the activation of gender stereotypes when the facial primes contained only gender information. The results showed that gender stereotypes were activated. In Experiment 2, the facial primes contained both gender category and expression information. The results indicated that gender stereotypes were not activated. Experiment 3 required the participants to make emotion, gender, or impression decisions concerning the facial primes before the lexical decision task. The results showed that gender stereotypes were not activated in emotion and impression decisions conditions, whereas stereotypes were activated in gender decisions condition. These finding suggest that facial expressions can inhibit automatic activation of gender stereotypes, unless the perceivers perform gender categorization processing to prime faces intentionally.

Unattended explanations on gender gaps in acute myocardial infarction. How can we understand gender gaps in infarction?

Advances in cardiovascular diseases research have shown that there are differences in social groups, which have been solely explained by biomedical dimensions. Although there have been advances in the biological understanding of these diseases, they do not account for the complexity of the phenomenon. To address this, the introduction of psychosocial variables have shown that they may be useful to understand the manifestations and evolution of these conditions. Thus, gender gaps should not be studied exclusively from a biomedical perspective. This article reviews the explanations about the gender gaps in the expression of acute myocardial infarction based on gender stereotypes, as an alternative to the biomedical approach. Stereotypes can predict different consequences when they are used by health professionals or patients. Finally, alternatives are proposed to reduce the negative results of the gender stereotype activation when an acute myocardial infarction is suffered. Also new development lines in theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary work are proposed.

Theory of mind is related to children's resource allocations in gender stereotypic contexts.

The present study investigated the relations between 4- to 6-year-old children's (N = 67) gender stereotypes, resource allocations, and mental state knowledge in gender-stereotypic contexts. Participants were told vignettes about female and male characters completing gender-stereotyped activities (making dolls or trucks). Children held stereotypic expectations regarding doll- and truck-making abilities, and these expectations predicted the degree of bias in their allocations of resources to the characters. Critically, children's performance on a Theory of Mind (ToM) Scale (Diverse Desires [DD], Contents False-Belief [FB], Belief-Emotion [BE]) was significantly related to their allocations of resources to individuals whose effort did not fit existing gender stereotypes (e.g., a boy who was good at making dolls). With increasing ToM competence, children allocated resources based on merit (even when the character's effort did not fit existing gender stereotypes) rather than based on stereotypes. The present results provide novel information regarding the emergence of gender stereotypes about abilities, the influence of stereotypes on children's resource allocations, and the role of ToM in children's ability to challenge gender stereotypes when allocating resources. (PsycINFO Database Record

When Sugar-Coated Words Taste Dry: The Relationship between Gender, Anxiety, and Response to Irony.

This article approaches the question of mocking compliments and ironic praise from an interactional gender perspective. A statement such as “You're a real genius!” could easily be interpreted as a literal compliment, as playful humor or as an offensive insult. We investigate this thin line in the use of irony among adult men and women. The research introduces an interactional approach to irony, through the lens of gender stereotype bias. The main question concerns the impact of individual differences and gender effect on the perception and production of ironic comments. Irony Processing Task (IPT), developed by Milanowicz (2016), was applied in order to study the production and perception of ironic criticism and ironic praise in adult males and females. It is a rare case of a study measuring the ability to create irony because, unlike most of known irony research, it is not a multiple choice test where participants are given the response options. The IPT was also used to assess the asymmetry of affect (humor vs. malice) and impact of gender effect in the perception of ironic comments. Results are analyzed in relation to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores. The findings reveal the interactional relationship between gender and response to irony. Male responses were consistently more ironic than female's, across all experimental conditions, and female responses varied more. Both, men and women used more irony in response to male ironic criticism but female ironic praise. Anxiety proved to be a moderate predictor of irony comprehension and willingness to use irony. Data, collected in control and two gender stereotype activation conditions, also corroborates the assumption that the detection of compliments and the detection of criticism can be moderated by the attitude activation effect. The results are interpreted within the framework of linguistic intergroup bias (LIB) and natural selection strategies.

Gender Differences in Political Knowledge: Bringing Situation Back In

AbstractOne of the best-known empirical findings in the political sciences is the gender difference in political knowledge: women show less political knowledge than men. Conventional research argues that this difference is mainly a product of socialization, structural factors, and biology. Our paper brings a new perspective to the explanation of the gender gap in political knowledge. Based on an online survey and an experiment1, we emphasize the relevance of gender stereotypes as a situational pressure that reduces the performance of women in a political knowledge test. Two conclusions emerge from the analysis: First, our results indicate the existence of a negative stereotype related to the political knowledge of women. Second, the activation of gender stereotypes affects performance on a political knowledge test. Consistent with previous research on stereotype threat, our results indicate that the performance of men on a political knowledge test is affected by gender stereotypes.

Gender Stereotype Activation versus Lexical Semantic Activation: An ERP Study

ABSTRACTIt is an open question whether social stereotype activation can be distinguished from nonsocial semantic activation. To address this question, gender stereotype activation (GSA) and lexical semantic activation (LSA) were directly compared. EEGs were recorded in 20 participants as they identified the congruence between prime-target word pairs under four different conditions (stereotype congruent, stereotype incongruent, semantic congruent, and semantic incongruent). We found that congruent targets elicited faster and more accurate responses and reduced N400 amplitudes irrespective of priming category types. The N400 congruency effect (i.e., the difference between incongruity and congruity) started earlier and had greater amplitude for GSA than for LSA. Moreover, gender category priming induced a smaller N400 and a larger P600 than lexical category priming. These findings suggest that the brain is not only sensitive to both stereotype and semantic violation in the post-perceptual processing stage but can also differentiate these two information processes. Further, the findings suggest superior processing (i.e., faster and deeper processing) when the words are associated with social category and convey stereotype knowledge.

When Gay Men and Lesbian Women Disclose their Sexual Orientation Influences Salary

This paper examines the social cognitive process of how timing of disclosure affects the salary of gay and lesbian employees through stereotype activation. In Study 1, we examine the perspective of the discloser by surveying 140 gay and lesbian employees from a variety of professions. In Study 2, we examine the perspective of the recipient by conducting a lab study manipulating timing of disclosure and gender to establish the casual mechanism between disclosure timing and salary through priming for negative attitudes toward gay and lesbian individuals. Results supported our proposed moderated mediation model: the indirect effect of timing of disclosure on gay men and lesbians’ salaries are transmitted through negative attitudes toward non-heterosexual individuals, with significantly different indirect effects for male vs. female disclosers. Specifically, earlier disclosures of sexual minority identities primed more negative attitudes and ultimately had more negative implications for men’s salaries than for women’s salaries. These findings suggest that the activation of minority sexual orientation and gender stereotypes interact to produce differing attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, thereby offering unique insights into earnings discrepancies among men and women of different sexual orientations.