See for yourself
Reliance on individuating information and stereotypes in implicit and explicit person perception
Rachel Rubinstein, Lee Jussim & Sean Stevens
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, March 2018, Pages 54-70
Abstract:
This research investigated whether stereotypes or individuating information take primacy in implicit and explicit person perception. Study 1 investigated whether variation in the diagnosticity of individuating information moderated stereotype bias in implicit and explicit person perception. Increases in diagnosticity produced a linear reduction in explicit and implicit stereotype bias; with more diagnostic individuating information, there was less bias. Studies 2 and 3 examined the effects on person perception of racial stereotypes and of diagnostic individuating information that varied in valence. Study 2 found no substantial implicit or explicit anti-Black stereotype bias in the presence of diagnostic individuating information and large individuating information effects on explicit person perception. Study 3 found no explicit anti-Black stereotype bias in the presence of diagnostic individuating information and that individuating information influenced both implicit and explicit person perception. Together, these studies showed that individuating information can reduce or eliminate stereotype bias in implicit and explicit person perception and that its effect depends on the diagnosticity of the information. In addition, patterns of reliance on stereotypes and individuating information in implicit and explicit person perception generally converged. Results are discussed in the context of current controversies about the processes underlying implicit and explicit social cognition.
“Don’t Bother Your Pretty Little Head”: Appearance Compliments Lead to Improved Mood but Impaired Cognitive Performance
Rotem Kahalon, Nurit Shnabel & Julia Becker
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined whether appearance compliments, despite their flattery, undermine cognitive performance. In Study 1, women participants (N = 88 Israeli university students) who wrote about past situations in which they had received appearance compliments (but not competence-related compliments) showed worse math performance than women in a control/no compliment condition — especially if they scored high on trait self-objectification (TSO). In Study 2, men and women participants (Nwomen = 73, Nmen = 75 Israeli university students) received bogus occupational evaluation feedback, which did or did not include an appearance compliment. Although appearance compliments led to mood improvement among participants with high TSO, they also undermined math performance among both women and men. Because receiving appearance compliments is a common experience for women (whereas men are typically complimented for their competencies), our findings suggest that appearance compliments serve as a mechanism that might subtly perpetuate gender inequality. For the promotion of societal gender equality, it is important that the public is aware that appearance compliments, even if meant well, may create sexist environments.
Positive stereotypes, negative outcomes: Reminders of the positive components of complementary gender stereotypes impair performance in counter-stereotypical tasks
Rotem Kahalon, Nurit Shnabel & Julia Becker
British Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Gender stereotypes are complementary: Women are perceived to be communal but not agentic, whereas men are perceived to be agentic but not communal. The present research tested whether exposure to reminders of the positive components of these gender stereotypes can lead to stereotype threat and subsequent performance deficits on the complementary dimension. Study 1 (N = 116 female participants) revealed that compared to a control/no-stereotype condition, exposure to reminders of the stereotype about women's communality (but not to reminders of the stereotype about women's beauty) impaired women's math performance. In Study 2 (N = 86 male participants), reminders of the stereotype about men's agency (vs. a control/no-stereotype condition) impaired men's performance in a test of socio-emotional abilities. Consistent with previous research on stereotype threat, in both studies the effect was evident among participants with high domain identification. These findings extend our understanding of the potentially adverse implications of seemingly positive gender stereotypes.
The Relationship Between Sexualized Appearance and Perceptions of Women’s Competence and Electability
Julia Smith et al.
Sex Roles, forthcoming
Abstract:
Women do not have a uniform or standardized “suit” to wear in the workplace so they must make daily decisions about what to wear. Some propose that women should dress in a sexualized way to gain power and influence, but sexy attire is related to lower perceptions of competence for women in leadership positions. We explored the effect of revealing or conservative attire on perceptions of women’s leadership competence. We also used eye-tracker technology to determine whether looking at sexualized body parts (i.e., breasts, hemline) was related to lower perceptions of leadership competence and electability. A female candidate for a student senate presidency at a U.S. university wearing revealing clothing was perceived by 191 college students as less honest and trustworthy, electable, and competent than one wearing conservative clothing. Sexualized body parts were looked at longer when the candidate was wearing revealing clothing compared to conservative clothing. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that the revealing clothing led participants to gaze at sexualized body parts, which, in turn, led to perceiving the candidate as less honest/trustworthy, which lowered their evaluations of her competence and electability. These findings suggest that viewing a woman in a sexy outfit can lead others to stare more at her body and make negative evaluations of her personal attributes. This finding has implications for the choices women make in workplace and leadership contexts.
The Cultural Divide and Changing Beliefs about Gender in the United States, 1974–2010
Kristen Schultz Lee, Paula Tufiş & Duane Alwin
Sex Roles, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present paper examines claims of a growing cultural divide in the United States. We analyze social change in beliefs about gender over a period of 36 years (from 1974 to 2010) in the United States using data from the nationally representative General Social Survey (GSS). We find evidence of growing gender egalitarianism until the mid-1990s, with a reversal between 1996 and 2000, and a decline in state differences in beliefs about gender over time in our decomposition analysis and multilevel models. Although we find significant differences in gender beliefs among states in the 1970s based on their voting record on the Equal Rights Amendment and based on patterns of family formation and family life associated with the Second Demographic Transition, these differences among states decreased or disappeared entirely by the early years of the twenty-first century. We highlight the implications of our findings for the ongoing public and academic debate surrounding growing cultural differences among states.
A Universal Intervention Program Increases Ethnic-Racial Identity Exploration and Resolution to Predict Adolescent Psychosocial Functioning One Year Later
Adriana Umaña-Taylor et al.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, January 2018, Pages 1–15
Abstract:
Ethnic-racial identity formation represents a key developmental task that is especially salient during adolescence and has been associated with many indices of positive adjustment. The Identity Project intervention, which targeted ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution, was designed based on the theory that program-induced changes in ethnic-racial identity would lead to better psychosocial adjustment (e.g., global identity cohesion, self-esteem, mental health, academic achievement). Adolescents (N =215; Mage =15.02, SD =.68; 50% female) participated in a small-scale randomized control trial with an attention control group. A cascading mediation model was tested using pre-test and three follow-up assessments (12, 18, and 67 weeks after baseline). The program led to increases in exploration, subsequent increases in resolution and, in turn, higher global identity cohesion, higher self-esteem, lower depressive symptoms, and better grades. Results support the notion that increasing adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity can promote positive psychosocial functioning among youth.
The Effects of Exposure to Negative Social Reactions and Participant Gender on Attitudes and Behavior Toward a Rape Victim
Amy Brown
Violence Against Women, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research has shown that judgments of a rape victim could be influenced by exposure to negative social reactions: students indicated less willingness to provide sympathy and support to a hypothetical rape victim when they learned she had been blamed and stigmatized. The current study, which utilized a sample of 100 college students, replicated and extended these results and showed that men were affected by others’ negative social reactions in their hypothetical judgments and in their behavioral responses to a rape victim (sitting farther away). This study demonstrates the potentially far-reaching detrimental influence of negative social reactions.
The Judgment Bias Task: A flexible method for assessing individual differences in social judgment biases
Jordan Axt, Helen Nguyen & Brian Nosek
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many areas of social psychological research investigate how social information may bias judgment. However, most measures of social judgment biases are (1) low in reliability because they use a single response, (2) not indicative of individual differences in bias because they use between-subjects designs, (3) inflexible because they are designed for a particular domain, and (4) ambiguous about magnitude of bias because there is no objectively correct answer. We developed a measure of social judgment bias, the Judgment Bias Task, in which participants judge profiles varying in quality for a certain outcome based on objective criteria. The presence of ostensibly irrelevant social information provides opportunity to assess the extent to which social biases undermine the use of objective criteria in judgment. The JBT facilitates measurement of social judgment biases by (1) using multiple responses, (2) indicating individual differences by using within-subject designs, (3) being adaptable for assessing a variety of judgments, (4) identifying an objective magnitude of bias, and (5) taking 6 min to complete on average. In nine pre-registered studies (N > 9000) we use the JBT to reveal two prominent social judgment biases: favoritism towards more physically attractive people and towards members of one's ingroup. We observe that the JBT can reveal social biases, and that these sometimes occur even when the participant did not intend or believe they showed biased judgment. A flexible, objective, efficient assessment of social judgment biases will accelerate theoretical and empirical progress.
Exposure to negative stereotypes impairs older adults’ self-control
Jessica Alquist et al.
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present studies were designed to test the hypothesis that exposure to negative stereotypes about older adults impairs older adults’ self-control as measured with a delay discounting task. Participants (ages 65–77) were assigned to read either a positive or negative article on the cognitive effects of aging (Study 1 and 2) or were assigned to a neutral control condition (Study 2). Older adults in the negative article condition chose delayed rewards less frequently than older adults in the positive or neutral conditions. Follow up tests suggested that the difference between positive and negative article conditions was mediated by participants’ discrepancy between their chronological and subjective age. Negative stereotypes about older adults may impair older adults’ ability to resist immediate impulses in order to pursue their goals.
The Racial Double Standard: Attributing Racial Motivations in Voting Behavior
David Wilson & Darren Davis
Public Opinion Quarterly, Spring 2018, Pages 63–86
Abstract:
In the wake of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, political observers were quick to assert that Barack Obama won the African American vote because he was Black, and more generally, that African Americans were motivated by race above all other considerations. As this racial reductionist stereotype has the potential to trivialize African Americans’ voting behavior and diminish the significance of the election of Barack Obama, this research examined how much support exists for the stereotype. We also examined whether a racial double standard motivates the application of this stereotype, and if so, the degree to which it is grounded in a broader antipathy toward Blacks. Several experiments embedded in two large national public opinion surveys show that there is indeed a racial double standard in the application of the racial reductionist stereotype; moreover, the attribution is connected to racial resentment.
The Nature and Consequences of Essentialist Beliefs About Race in Early Childhood
Tara Mandalaywala et al.
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is widely believed that race divides the world into biologically distinct kinds of people — an essentialist belief inconsistent with reality. Essentialist views of race have been described as early emerging, but this study found that young children (n = 203, Mage = 5.45) hold only the more limited belief that the physical feature of skin color is inherited and stable. Overall, children rejected the causal essentialist view that behavioral and psychological characteristics are constrained by an inherited racial essence. Although average levels of children's causal essentialist beliefs about race were low, variation in these beliefs was related to children's own group membership, exposure to diversity, as well as children's own social attitudes.
Constructing Difference: Lego® Set Narratives Promote Stereotypic Gender Roles and Play
Stephanie Reich, Rebecca Black & Tammie Foliaki
Sex Roles, forthcoming
Abstract:
LEGO® construction sets are a staple in many children’s lives. Given worldwide distribution, generations of children have grown up playing with these brightly colored, interlocking plastic bricks. Historically marketed to all children, the LEGO® Group has begun targeting male and female consumers differentially with the introduction of product lines such as LEGO® City and LEGO® Friends. Although the packaging, marketing, brick colors, and characters have changed, little is known about whether these product series encourage differences in the way boys and girls play. This content analysis compared the play narratives of sets marketed to boys (LEGO® City) and girls (LEGO® Friends). Our analysis found distinct gendered messages that encourage boys to enact various skilled professions, heroism, and expertise, whereas girls are encouraged to focus on having hobbies, being domestic, caring for others, socializing, being amateurs, and appreciating and striving for beauty. Although LEGO® City and Friends sets offer opportunities for construction, they also promote stereotyped gender roles for enacting femininity and masculinity in play. Parents, educators, and practitioners often focus on the educational affordances of LEGO® construction. We recommend that they also consider the other lessons, both explicit and implicit, being taught through gender-specific LEGO® sets.
Of Men and Money: Characteristics of Occupations that Affect the Gender Differentiation of Children’s Occupational Interests
Amy Roberson Hayes, Rebecca Bigler & Erica Weisgram
Sex Roles, forthcoming
Abstract:
Occupational interests become gender differentiated during childhood and remain so among adults. Two characteristics of occupations may contribute to this differentiation: the gender of individuals who typically perform the occupation (workers’ gender) and the particular goals that the occupation allows one to fulfill, such as the opportunity to help others or acquire power (value affordances). Two studies tested hypotheses about whether U.S. 6- to 11-year-olds show gender differences in their interest in novel jobs that were depicted as (a) being performed by men versus women and (b) affording money, power, family, or helping values. In Study 1, 98 children rank-ordered their preferences for experimentally-manipulated novel jobs, and they answered questions about their occupational values and the value affordances of jobs in which men and women typically work. In Study 2, a second sample of 65 children was used to test the replicability of findings from Study 1. As hypothesized, children were more interested in jobs depicted with same- than other-gender workers in both studies. Boys showed greater interest than did girls in novel jobs depicted as affording money in Study 1, but not Study 2. Explicit knowledge that men and women typically work in jobs that afford differing values increased with participants’ age.
Perceiving Groups: The People Perception of Diversity and Hierarchy
Taylor Phillips, Michael Slepian & Brent Hughes
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The visual perception of individuals has received considerable attention (visual person perception), but little social psychological work has examined the processes underlying the visual perception of groups of people (visual people perception). Ensemble-coding is a visual mechanism that automatically extracts summary statistics (e.g., average size) of lower-level sets of stimuli (e.g., geometric figures), and also extends to the visual perception of groups of faces. Here, we consider whether ensemble-coding supports people perception, allowing individuals to form rapid, accurate impressions about groups of people. Across nine studies, we demonstrate that people visually extract high-level properties (e.g., diversity, hierarchy) that are unique to social groups, as opposed to individual persons. Observers rapidly and accurately perceived group diversity and hierarchy, or variance across race, gender, and dominance (Studies 1–3). Further, results persist when observers are given very short display times, backward pattern masks, color- and contrast-controlled stimuli, and absolute versus relative response options (Studies 4a–7b), suggesting robust effects supported specifically by ensemble-coding mechanisms. Together, we show that humans can rapidly and accurately perceive not only individual persons, but also emergent social information unique to groups of people. These people perception findings demonstrate the importance of visual processes for enabling people to perceive social groups and behave effectively in group-based social interactions.
Changing Norms Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: The Trump Effect on Prejudice
Christian Crandall, Jason Miller & Mark White
Social Psychological and Personality Science, March 2018, Pages 186-192
Abstract:
The 2016 presidential election was characterized by the remarkable expression of prejudice toward a range of groups. In two closely related studies (N = 388; 196 supporting Trump, 192 Clinton), we measured (1) perceptions of social norms toward prejudice or (2) people’s own levels of prejudice toward 19 social groups, shortly before and after the election. Some groups were targeted by the Trump campaign (e.g., Muslims, immigrants) and some were not (e.g., atheists, alcoholics). Participants saw an increase in the acceptability of prejudice toward groups Trump targeted but little shift in untargeted groups. By contrast, participants reported a personal drop in Trump-targeted prejudice, probably due to changing comparison standards, with no change in prejudice toward untargeted groups. The 2016 election seems to have ushered in a normative climate that favored expression of several prejudices; this shift may have played a role in the substantial increase in bias-related incidents that follow closely upon the election.
Keystroke dynamics features for gender recognition
Ioannis Tsimperidis, Avi Arampatzis & Alexandros Karakos
Digital Investigation, forthcoming
Abstract:
This work attempts to recognize the gender of an unknown user with data derived only from keystroke dynamics. Keystroke dynamics, which can be described as the way a user is typing, usually amount to tens of thousands of features, each of them enclosing some information. The question that arises is which of these characteristics are most suitable for gender classification. To answer this question, a new dataset was created by recording users during the daily usage of their computer, the information gain of each keystroke dynamics feature was calculated, and five well-known classification models were used to test the feature sets. The results show that the gender of an unknown user can be identified with an accuracy of over 95% with only a few hundred features. This percentage, which is the highest found in the literature, is quite promising for the development of reliable systems that can alert an unsuspecting user to being a victim of deception. Moreover, having the ability to identify the gender of a user who types a certain piece of text is of significant importance in digital forensics. This holds true, as it could be the source of circumstantial evidence for “putting fingers on the keyboard” and for arbitrating cases where the true origin of a message needs to be identified.
Psychological consequences of the Dad Bod: Using biological and physical changes to increase essentialist perceptions of fathers
Erin McPherson, Sarah Banchefsky & Bernadette Park
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Psychological essentialism occurs when a category is seen as real, meaningful, and having a basis in an invisible underlying essence. Prior research has demonstrated that mothers are seen in more essentialist terms than fathers (Park, Banchefsky, & Reynolds, 2015). Across two studies using an online survey method (Study 1 N = 408; Study 2 N = 756), we found that this difference could be attenuated by providing participants with information about invisible biological (e.g., increased oxytocin levels; Study 1) or visible physical (developing a “Dad Bod”; Study 2) changes that fathers experience. These manipulations increased essentialist perceptions of fathers, while leaving those of mothers unchanged. The results indicate that exposure to information about physical and biological changes undergone by fathers can have important consequences in terms of how fathers are perceived as a social category.
Motivating User-Generated Content with Performance Feedback: Evidence from Randomized Field Experiments
Ni Huang et al.
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We design a series of online performance feedback interventions that aim to motivate the production of user-generated content (UGC). Drawing on social value orientation (SVO) theory, we develop a novel set of alternative feedback message framings, aligned with cooperation (e.g., your content benefited others), individualism (e.g., your content was of high quality), and competition (e.g., your content was better than others). We hypothesize how gender (a proxy for SVO) moderates response to each framing, and we report on two randomized experiments, one in partnership with a mobile-app–based recipe crowdsourcing platform, and a follow-up experiment on Amazon Mechanical Turk involving an ideation task. We find evidence that cooperatively framed feedback is most effective for motivating female subjects, whereas competitively framed feedback is most effective at motivating male subjects. Our work contributes to the literatures on performance feedback and UGC production by introducing cooperative performance feedback as a theoretically motivated, novel intervention that speaks directly to users’ altruistic intent in a variety of task settings. Our work also contributes to the message-framing literature in considering competition as a novel addition to the altruism–egoism dichotomy oft explored in public good settings.